Fine Gael made a “mistake” in failing to disclose a $50,000 donation made to the party in 1995 by Norwegian company Telenor at the request Esat Digifone’s Denis O’Brien, Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar has admitted.
The donation, which was subsequently returned by then party leader John Bruton, was made just two months after the awarding of the State’s second mobile phone licence to Mr O’Brien’s company.
Details of the money, however, only came to the attention of the Moriarty tribunal in 2001 following a serious of media reports, according to the tribunal.
Mr Varadkar conceded today the findings of Mr Justice Michael Moriarty’s report did not reflect well on his party, not least the circumstances surrounding Telenor’s $50,000 political donation.
“It’s reasonable to say that Fine Gael does not come out of this episode smelling of roses.”
He also admitted that the initial failure to disclose details of the money and the circuitous route it took in being returned to Esat Digifone could have been “handled better”.
However, Mr Varadkar said the report confirmed that the cabinet at the time had been mislead by Mr Lowry in relation to details surrounding the competition for the licence, and that the Tipperary TD had “over-reached” the then taoiseach, Mr Bruton.
He also said the tribunal’s report confirmed that the donation had been “unwelcome” and ultimately rejected by Mr Bruton.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One programme, Mr Varadkar also insisted that when Fine Gael's Michael Noonan became aware of the donation during his tenure as leader, he instructed all relevant information to the passed on to the tribunal and waived the party's legal privileges in relation to the matter.
He indicated the Government intended to hold a debate on the report’s findings early next week and that the party whips would meet this evening to agree the scheduling.
He said politicians needed time to digest the findings of the 2,000-page report before debating the issues.
The first step was to refer the report to the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Garda Commissioner with a view to them carrying out an investigation, he said.
Asked if he and his Government colleagues broadly accepted the report’s findings, Mr Varadkar said the Government had referred the report to public prosecutors and “we wouldn’t have done that if we didn’t take the findings seriously”.
