Former director of Century Communications Mr James Stafford told the tribunal he had gone to the then Taoiseach, Mr Charles Haughey, in 1989 to take up the issue of the transmission charge RTE was demanding.
Mr Stafford said he had met Mr Haughey and in a separate meeting, Mr Ray Burke, then minister for communications, to put forward Century's position. Century had argued the transmission charge to be paid to RTE should be £300,000 but RTE had first quoted £1.14 million and then reduced it to £614,000. Mr Stafford said he went to see Mr Haughey in his offices and he was as unsympathetic as Mr Burke had been.
Mr Haughey's attitude was that Century had got the franchise and they should have thought about this before they applied for it and it was their problem. There was nothing he could do about it and that was that, said Mr Stafford.
When Mr Pat Hanratty SC, for the tribunal, asked if he had seen him with Mr Oliver Barry, or if the Taoiseach was accompanied by anybody, or if there was a civil servant present, Mr Stafford replied "No" each time.
Mr Stafford said he told Mr Haughey bluntly that if access was not made available at the price which reflected the advice they had got from the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) in Britain, they would have to abandon the project. Mr Stafford said he did not think they went near the minister until they were awarded the franchise for the national commercial radio station on January 18th, 1989. RTE had not wanted to discuss it with them and talked down to them, he said.
He went to the minister after the award. He thought Mr Oliver Barry might have been there and it was in the presence of a civil servant. He had no recollection of the exact date.
Mr Stafford said the minister certainly got his message that RTE was abusing its dominant position. He would also have informed him about the discrepancy in estimates. He would have made the point that he did not think the transmission service belonged to RTE.
The minister had said it was the IRTC he should be dealing with and he did not wish to be drawn into it. He could only intervene if the IRTC made representations to him.
Asked if the minister had not told him that agreement had been reached between the minister, the Department and RTE on a figure of £614,000, Mr Stafford said his position was clear that £300,000 was the correct figure.
Mr Stafford said that in the opinion of Mr Ray Hill, who left the IBA but continued to be a consultant on the transmission charges for Century, the RTE quotations were outrageous and were three or four times what they should be.
"RTE had a strong dominant position in the market and it was in a position to ensure we never got off the ground, particularly if the original figure of £1.14 million had been taken seriously," Mr Stafford said.