Civil servants may be recalled to give further evidence

SOME of the civil servants who have given evidence to the Moriarty Tribunal on the way the competition for the State’s second mobile phone licence was run may be recalled. The tribunal has been sitting for 200 days.

Department of Communications officials connected with the selection of Denis O’Brien’s Esat Digifone consortium as competition winner seven years ago have already given evidence on this topic for 36 days.

The significance of material lying in department files only became apparent after the current witness, Seán MacMahon, began to give evidence earlier this week, according to the tribunal legal team yesterday.

During his examination on Thursday, the former principal officer in the telecom’s regulatory division agreed there was political or ministerial pressure to get the licence competition concluded in October 1995. Tribunal lawyer Jerry Healy SC said material relating to October 18 to 25, 1995, would have to be incorporated and might involve a review of evidence given by other civil service witnesses.