Mr Denis O'Brien has told the tribunal he refused a request from Mr David Austin to take a table at the Fine Gael dinner in New York in November 1995. He did so because he felt it would be "inappropriate" for the company to attend or make a donation, due to its proximity to the granting to Esat Digifone of the second mobile phone licence.
"My instinct told me it wasn't the right thing to do," he said.
He had suggested that Telenor, which had a share in the Esat Digifone consortium, might wish to participate because the Norwegian partner was interested in developing its business in Ireland and in becoming more involved in Irish affairs.
After the conversation with Mr Austin, he contacted Mr Arve Johansen of Telenor by phone, he said. This was "definitely" before the Fine Gael dinner in New York took place.
He had left the decision about whether to make a donation entirely up to the Norwegian firm, he said.
He agreed he had spoken about the matter at the meeting with Mr Johansen in Oslo on December 8th, 1995. He left the meeting with the impression Mr Johansen was "very happy" for Telenor to make the donation to Fine Gael.
The first time he had learned Esat Digifone was to pick up the $50,000 payment to Fine Gael was at an Esat Digifone shareholders' meeting in March 1996, when Telenor "made" Esat take the payment as a management cost, Mr O'Brien said. It was just one of 10 or 15 issues raised in a very pressurised situation. However, he insisted he and his lawyers had even then objected to making the payment as it was "inappropriate" for Esat Digifone.
He had no knowledge at that time of how Telenor had been invoiced for consultancy services by Mr Austin, nor of the subsequent invoices sent by Telenor to Esat Digifone. He did not know that the first invoice to Esat, bearing Mr Austin's name, had been "shredded" in Dublin.
"I had no hand, act or part in invoices being changed, shredded or whatever." If he had known, he would have questioned what was going on.
He agreed it was "unusual" to see so many invoices withdrawn and changed. Neither Telenor nor Esat Digifone had received any consultancy services from Mr Austin, he agreed. It was not true that the payment to Fine Gael was to be charged as a management fee to Esat Digifone at his own behest and that this was how the documentation "got into the state it was in", as suggested by Mr Coughlan.
It was not true that the payment was to be "invisible" on the Irish side. "It was a Telenor donation."
Mr O'Brien said Esat had been in the middle of a £116 million project and that there were "countless issues" of more importance at that time than the payment to Fine Gael.
"Am I right that if it had been a stand-alone issue, you would have taken a stand and refused it?" Mr Coughlan said. "Yes," Mr O'Brien replied. Because it was inappropriate for Esat Digifone. "But not for Telenor," he said.
The tribunal was adjourned to Tuesday, June 12th, when Mr O'Brien will resume his evidence.