A KEY member of the project team that selected Esat Digifone as winner of the State’s second mobile phone licence competition eight years ago has denied he was engaged in “cooking the books.”

MICHAEL LOWRY would have been equally happy if the Persona consortium had won the competition to run the State’s second mobile phone network, according to a member of the civil service team that evaluated the six bidders.

SENIOR civil servant Fintan Towey viewed a letter showing Dermot Desmond’s early involvement in Esat Digifone as the consortium’s attempt to boost its prospects of winning the State’s second mobile phone licence competition.

JUST weeks before civil servants chose Esat Digifone as winner of the State’s second mobile phone licence competition, Michael Lowry was under pressure from bidders who were concerned “the competition was sewn up and the media favourite had the licence in the bag”.

FORMER civil servant John McQuaid, a member of the team that selected the winner of the State’s second mobile phone licence competition nearly eight years ago, told the Moriarty Tribunal yesterday there was “a fairly hard argument” on whether more time was needed to improve the draft evaluation report two days before the result was made public.

FINANCIER Dermot Desmond’s backing of Esat Digifone was not known to the civil servant in charge of the evaluation process when the Irish-led consortium won the second mobile phone licence, the Moriarty Tribunal heard yesterday.