Lowry may have chanced his arm, says ex-official

A FORMER senior civil servant suggested yesterday Michael Lowry might have been chancing his arm about the extent of his knowledge if, as claimed, he discussed one of the consortia bidding for the country’s second mobile telephone licence.

“You do find situations where ministers always like to give the impression that they know more than they actually do or that they are more involved in a process than they actually are,” the retired civil servant Sean Fitzgerald told the Moriarty Tribunal.

Mr Fitzgerald, who is a former assistant secretary at the Department of Communications, added that he had no doubt that the competition for the second mobile phone licence was carried out without any external influence or pressure.

During cross examination, Mr Fitzgerald agreed that it would have been impossible for one individual to have brought about the final result of the competition.

He said civil servants would have spotted any attempt to try to massage or rig that result. Earlier Mr Fitzgerald described as very regrettable the fact that the Department of Communications had kept no records of several important meetings between department officials and members of Esat Digifone.

The meetings were conducted in the days which preceded the granting of the telecom licence to Esat in May of 1996.

Mr Fitzgerald also defended a department decision to allow civil servants head up a media conference to defend the controversial decision to award the licence to Esat. Mr Fitzgerald is expected to conclude his evidence today.

Earlier yesterday, the tribunal chairman confirmed Dermot Desmond has written letters of complaint directly to him.

His clarification arose from a media report at the weekend claiming the financier made contact by telephone.

Last Wednesday, Mr Justice Michael Moriarty revealed that Mr Desmond had made direct personal contact, on a number of occasions, complaining about the direction of the tribunal’s investigations.

Bill Shipsey SC, for Mr Desmond, who asked for confirmation on the nature of the contact, pointed out that since the chairman’s observation there had been some ill-informed media speculation that the communication had been of a personal or telephone nature.