Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The point is that the person who initiated a phone call to the former leader of my party, Deputy John Bruton, about contributions being available from Telenor was told by the latter that the money should be left where it was. That person made arrangements for a €60,000 payment to a former leader of Fianna Fáil.

It was not Fine Gael that arranged for an offshore account, nor was it Fine Gael that arranged for a cheque, drawn in another person's name, to be sent to the party prior to the 1997 election. It was the Fine Gael general secretary who received the cheque and assumed it was a legitimate contribution according to the regulations at the time. When it became known that the cheque's original source was Telenor, the leader of the party ordered that it be sent back. That took quite some time but that is what happened.

The Moriarty report makes it quite clear that the contribution was unwarranted and unasked for and that the leader of the party ordered that it be sent back. I know of no covert operation. I have never heard of any operation such as that suggested by Deputy Martin. The event in question was quite some time ago. I can put my hand on my heart and say I have no knowledge, good, bad or indifferent, about anything remotely parallel to this ever having happened in the Fine Gael Party. I do not know whether it happened in Deputy Martin's party. The tribunal and its report dealt with the Telenor contribution as being distinguishable given the way it had arrived. It was sent back by the party when its source became known by the then leader, who gave evidence and testified in respect of the matter.

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