Kenny: Licence contenders attended fundraiser but insists were not invited and did not make donation
But Mr Kenny denied any impropriety, saying the consortium members did not personally donate to the fundraiser or have any discussions with him in relation to the licence.
Fine Gael used “neither tents nor balaclavas” to raise money, he said, in a dig at Fianna Fáil’s infamous Galway Tent and Sinn Féin’s links to the IRA.
Mr Kenny was responding to questions from members of the opposition during the concluding stages of the Dáil debate on the Moriarty Report yesterday.
Mr Kenny was Tourism Minister in 1995 when Michael Lowry’s Department of Communications was adjudicating on the competition for the licence.
Mr Kenny hosted a fundraiser in Dublin’s Conrad Hotel in October that year, just a few days before the licence was awarded.
It was reported in 2003 that members of one of the consortia bidding for the licence was in attendance at the fundraiser.
Mr Kenny confirmed this last night, saying the fundraiser was for his own Mayo constituency and that two members of the unsuccessful “Eurofone” consortium were in attendance.
“Both of these gentlemen attended at that function uninvited [and] did not make a contribution,” Mr Kenny said.
“They were invited by the late Sean Murray who was a partner in Grant Thornton’s, who paid a contribution,” he said.
“I [was] obviously unaware of any connection with these people, did not speak to them at all in respect of anything to do with the second GSM licence, and this information was provided to the tribunal in the interests of completeness and for their assistance, because while the two gentlemen were present, they were not invited [and] they didn’t contribute.”
Mr Kenny told the Dáil last night that Esat boss Denis O’Brien had made donations to 15 separate Fine Gael events between the years 1994 and 1996.
The tribunal found Mr O’Brien had made a concerted effort to elevate his profile with Fine Gael, at this time, when the party was in government.
Mr Kenny said that, in total, the Esat boss had contributed to 10 Fine Gael constituency events and five national events during the period in question.
The payments are listed in the Moriarty Report. Fourteen involved three or four-figure sums, ranging from £200 for a fundraising lunch in Westmeath, to £5,000 for a Wicklow by-election fundraising lunch.
But the 15th payment was the controversial $50,000 donation which the tribunal found Esat had made in a “clandestine fashion” to the party after winning the licence.
Mr Kenny reiterated that when the then party leader, John Bruton, became aware of the source of this donation in the 1990s, he ordered it to be returned.
The Taoiseach also reiterated that it had been wrong of Fine Gael to fail to disclose the $50,000 donation to the tribunal.
But he claimed that the $50,000 donation — and the circuitous way it came to Fine Gael — was “unprecedented” in the party’s fundraising history.
Fine Gael had adhered to the regulations in force at the time concerning donations, he said.
“I want you to understand that in so far as fundraising activities by the Fine Gael party was concerned, they neither relied upon tents nor balaclavas, and in that sense, the regulations in force were adhered to,” Mr Kenny stated.
New Ceann Comhairle Sean Barrett called a sharp halt to the questioning of Mr Kenny once the allotted time had run out.
Questions to the Government about the Moriarty Tribunal had been scheduled to run for an hour from 5.40pm.
In recent years, some latitude was afforded during Dáil debates or questions- and-answers sessions if they ran over time.
But Mr Barrett has already signalled that he will be adopting a tougher approach to time limits than his predecessors in a bid to improve the working of the chamber.
Last night, the former Fine Gael minister warned TDs to be cognisant of the one-hour time limit.
But despite appeals from him for TDs to keep their questions short, some speakers went over their allotted time.
As a result, as Fianna Fáil TD Michael McGrath was posing his queries to the Taoiseach circa 6.40pm, Mr Barrett called a halt to the questioning.
Even though Mr Kenny offered to give a brief answer to Mr McGrath’s questions, the Ceann Comhairle instead instructed Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte to deliver the concluding speech of the two-day debate on the report.
Mr McGrath’s questions therefore went unanswered, with the Ceann Comhairle’s strict adherence to the time limit resulting in consternation on the opposition benches.
During the hour-long questions and answers session, both Mr Kenny and Mr Rabbitte had fielded queries.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
