Mr Oliver Barry has told the tribunal's legal team that the £35,000 he gave in 1989 to Mr Ray Burke, then minister for communications, was paid on behalf of himself, Mr James Stafford and Mr John Mulhern.
Mr Barry has said Mr Stafford and Mr Mulhern knew in advance about the payment and had agreed to pay it, counsel for the tribunal, Mr Pat Hanratty SC, said. "Mr Stafford and Mr Mulhern deny they knew about it in advance, but say they knew subsequently", Mr Hanratty added.
While Mr Stafford initially said he first heard about it from reading newspaper reports of the tribunal when Mr Barry gave evidence, he later told the tribunal lawyers he found out about it in 1991.
Mr Mulhern has told the tribunal he just heard about it afterwards, Mr Hanratty said.
Mr Hanratty said the £35,000 paid to Mr Burke was reimbursed in 1991. In order to disguise the amount in his accounts, Mr Barry referred to the payment as a deposit or a donation.
The tribunal was also told by Mr Hanratty that Mr Barry and Mr Stafford were involved in proposals to apply for a radio licence in Dublin but they did not want the IRTC to know they were involved in the bid.
"There was a complex arrangement designed to conceal from the IRTC the fact that Mr Stafford and Mr Barry were also involved in this venture."
According to Mr Barry, they applied for the Dublin licence in case they didn't get a national one, Mr Hanratty added.
Accountant Mr Pascal Taggart, who was involved in the proposal for a Dublin licence, withdrew from the project, as he felt it was seriously under-funded, Mr Hanratty said.
Mr Hanratty also said £26,250 was paid from the Century Radio accounts in June 1989 to Quality Artistes Management Ltd, which was owned by Mr Barry. Mr Hanratty said it was not clear why the payment was made and Century Radio staff had queried this at the time.
In January 1990, Mr Barry paid the money back to Century Radio, but in December of that year the same amount of money was paid again to Mr Barry.
Mr Hanratty said there were a number of coincidences involving the figure £26,250, as the number appeared in Mr Barry's expense accounts. The amount was also 10 per cent of the project management figure which had been agreed as a fee to RTE for using the transmission network and was the total amount of money from a number of cheques from the Century Radio account and Mr Barry's account in NIB.