Fine Gael’s failure to reveal $50k donation ‘regrettable’

FINE GAEL’S failure to disclose a secretive $50,000 donation it received from one of the partners in the winning consortium was “regrettable”, the Tribunal has said.

“No person or entity connected with the payment saw fit to notify the Tribunal of it, notwithstanding a substantial degree of knowledge of its clandestine circumstances and proffered return,” Mr Justice Moriarty said.

The donation from Telenor, coming as it did just a few weeks after the Esat Digifone consortium had won the licence competition, was “inappropriate and imprudent”.