The names of Mr Michael Lowry and Mr John Bruton were mentioned in a phone call to the chairman of the Norwegian firm Telenor by Fine Gael fundraiser Mr David Austin, shortly after Mr Denis O'Brien of Esat asked for a donation of $50,000 to the party as a "goodwill gesture", the Moriarty tribunal heard yesterday.
Mr Arve Johansen, chairman of Telenor Invest A.S. and chief executive of Telenor Mobile Communication, gave evidence in relation to the payment made via the late Mr Austin and eventually refunded to Telenor by Mr O'Brien's Esat Digifone, in which Telenor had a 40 per cent stake.
Mr Johansen said he did not know why he had a note of Mr Lowry's and Mr Bruton's names on a note of a telephone call he had with Mr Austin following the initial approach by Mr O'Brien for a donation in December 1995. However, he believed he had asked how the Fine Gael party would know about the donation and that Mr Austin had told him "all the top people" would know about it and mentioned "John Bruton and Michael Lowry".
He said the reference to Mr Bruton may have referred to Mr Bruton and Mr O'Brien "as having talked about the donation".
The reference to Mr Lowry referred to the donation being acknowledged by the "top people in the Fine Gael party", he said.
Mr Johansen said when Mr O'Brien asked him to pay the donation to Fine Gael on behalf of Esat Digifone, no mention was made of paying a donation to Mr Lowry. He had met Mr Lowry only once, during a press conference held when the licence was granted. The initial request for a donation to Fine Gael came at a private meeting with Mr O'Brien in Oslo on December 8th, 1995, the tribunal heard.
While he had initially said there was "no possibility" Telenor would make such a donation, Mr Johansen agreed to make it on Esat's behalf, on condition that it be refunded to Telenor by Esat Digifone when the new mobile phone company was in funds.
Mr Johansen said Mr O'Brien phoned him some days later instructing him to ring David Austin to discuss the payment.
On the handwritten note of his conversations with the two men were the names "Denis O'Brien", "David FT Austin", "John Bruton" and "Michael Lowry".
Telenor later received a covering letter and an invoice, dated December 14th, 1995, requesting that the $50,000 payment be made to an offshore account in Jersey.
Telenor made the payment on December 29th, 1995, but Mr Johansen was subsequently contacted by Mr O'Brien. Mr Johansen said he believed Mr O'Brien had been in touch with David Austin. His impression was that Mr Austin had not realised the $50,000 payment had already been made. "I said it had been paid and he checked."
Telenor subsequently re ceived an acknowledgement from Mr Austin, thanking Telenor on behalf of "those who received the payment" but not naming Fine Gael.
The former Fine Gael leader Mr John Bruton said last night he could not comment "on a conversation between third parties of which I had no knowledge". A party spokesman said it was "not appropriate to comment on matters currently before the tribunal.
"Fine Gael is co-operating fully with the tribunal and will answer all questions put to the party in due course," the spokesman said.