Austin was honest, says former minister

FORMER Fine Gael minister Sean Barrett told the Moriarty Tribunal yesterday he considered businessman David Austin, who handled a controversial $50,000 Telenor/Esat Telecom donation to the party, to be an honest man.

A senior Jefferson Smurfit executive and FG fundraiser, the late Mr Austin had offered the money as a personal donation in the run-up to the 1997 General Election.

Then Taoiseach John Bruton had rejected the money some time previously on discovering its connection to the Norwegian/Irish consortium that won the competition for the country’s second mobile phone licence in October 1995.