O’Brien claims tribunal suppressed vital information

BILLIONAIRE businessman Denis O’Brien has attacked the Moriarty Tribunal accusing it of deliberately suppressing vital information.

Calling for an immediate public statement from its chairman the telecoms and media tycoon has claimed statements “kept secret” by the tribunal for eights years completely undermine allegations by the inquiry against him as well as other civil servants.

The tribunal, which is examining dealings around the awarding of the state’s second mobile phone licence, will hear from a further witnesses tomorrow.

Two officials from the Office of the Attorney General (AG) are expected to give evidence, which will include details of private interviews with the tribunal in October 2002.

In a lengthy statement yesterday, Mr O’Brien said that these interviews had been “kept a secret” and the information from them completely undermined the basis for allegations the tribunal made in the inquiry’s opening statement.

“This deliberate suppression of vital information, part of a well-established pattern on the part of the Moriarty Tribunal, can no longer be ignored. This behaviour, and the clear dereliction of duty which it represents, is nothing short of appalling.”

The tribunal, when contacted yesterday, said it had no comment to make.

Mr O’Brien claimed the tribunal had fought hard, under the threat of High Court proceedings, to prevent interviews with the AG officials being exposed.

“These disturbing fabrications on the part of the Moriarty Tribunal can no longer be ignored. If this licence inquiry was a court process, the case would have spectacularly collapsed yesterday for suppression of evidence,” he added.

The businessman called for an independent examination of the tribunal as well as for an immediate statement from its chairman, Justice Michael Moriarty.

In his statement, Mr O’Brien claimed the tribunal had now withheld critical information on more than a dozen occasions.

The businessman’s comments came after former minister Michael Lowry renewed his own attack on the mobile licence probe.

Mr Lowry said he was “appalled” that testimony from the two AG officials – which he claims supports his version of events – was not revealed sooner.