Desmond link escaped licence probe

SENIOR civil servant Martin Brennan told the Moriarty Tribunal yesterday he would have probed Dermot Desmond’s link to the second mobile phone licence if he had known about the financier’s part in an earlier controversial property deal.

Tribunal counsel Jerry Healy SC said anybody who was aware of the Glackin Report and had any idea of the flavour of the findings had reason to do a very deep scrutiny of Mr Desmond in relation to his dealings with Esat Digifone.

"That's fair comment," replied Mr Brennan, who chaired the licence evaluation project team. He said he hadn't heard of the Glackin Report as he was then working and living in Brussels.