US$50,000 a Legitimate and Legal Political donation

 

No suggestion was ever raised by anyone (including the Moriarty Tribunal itself) that the US$50,000 donation was anything other than a perfectly legitimate and legal political donation.    No law or rule was broken.  The Fine Gael party ultimately decided against receiving the donation on the basis that receipt of a donation from a party associated with Esat Digifone was potentially open to being misconstrued give Esat’s success in a competitive bid process in 1995 and the awarding of a state licence in 1996.

 

As such, at its height, the US$50,000 was an attempted political donation.  The monies were never actually accepted by the Fine Gael party. As such, it is debatable whether the donation constituted a “payment” at all.  The existence of a defined “payment” is a requirement under the Tribunal’s Terms of Reference.   This is in addition to the fact that the donation was actually to the Fine Gael party; Michael Lowry was simply not involved at all.  The evidence has proven this to be the case.

 

The Moriarty Tribunal received evidence that other significant donations were received by the Fine Gael party from various Irish business figures and interests, including in the context of the New York fundraiser.   These included a US$20,000 personal donation to Fine Gael made by Tony O’Reilly.  None of these other significant donations were inquired into by the Moriarty Tribunal.