Denis O'Brien snr said he was well aware of the suggestion that Michael Lowry may have been paid for the State's second mobile phone licence.
Mr O'Brien was giving evidence in relation to the tribunal's inquiries into a £4.3 million property deal in Doncaster which Mr O'Brien jnr has said is exclusively his. Mr O'Brien jnr's Esat Digifone won the 1995 mobile phone licence competition.
Mr O'Brien snr told John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, that Mr Lowry's accountant, Denis O'Connor, had offered to help resolve a dispute with the vendors of the Doncaster property and he had accepted this offer.
He said the offer arose following conversations he had with Mr O'Connor during recesses in the sittings of the tribunal in 2002. He said he never asked Mr O'Connor to become involved in a dispute with Northern Irish businessman Kevin Phelan that also involved the Doncaster deal.
Mr O'Brien said he would never have accepted Mr O'Connor's offer to help resolve the dispute with the vendors if he had believed Mr Lowry was in some way linked to the Doncaster property. "I was very well aware of the suggestion that Michael Lowry may have got paid for the licence. I am 76 years old. I am not a fool. I have been reasonably successful in business."
Mr Coughlan asked if Mr O'Brien had thought there was a danger in using the services of Mr O'Connor in seeking to resolve the dispute involving Doncaster given that Mr O'Brien knew there was a fax in existence that mentioned Mr Lowry in relation to the project.
Mr O'Brien said it did not occur to him that it would be safer not to use Mr O'Connor. He was dealing with Doncaster and knew there were no references to Mr Lowry. "I swear on oath."
He said: "I would never have used his help if I suspected for a moment that Mr Lowry had received a payment from my son. You'd want to be nuts."
He said Mr O'Connor never sought a fee for his work on the matter and was never paid one.
Mr O'Connor attended a meeting in London in relation to the dispute, reviewed documents, and offered to seek to resolve the issue with the vendors. The exercise came to an end when Mr O'Brien's London solicitors recommended against Mr O'Connor being involved.
Mr Coughlan asked what he thought Mr O'Connor could bring to the table, given that the O'Brien family had already engaged an accountant and solicitor in England. "He offered to help. I would have accepted help from the devil himself."
He said Mr O'Connor was a respected, intelligent, and able man. "Just in case he could help. I was quite happy to accept it."
Mr O'Brien continues his evidence today.