No suggestion of Lowry interference, says judge

THERE was no suggestion from evidence made available to the tribunal that former Communications Minister Michael Lowry interfered with the Government committee that selected the winner of the country’s second mobile telephone licence, Mr Justice Michael Moriarty said yesterday.

He was responding to Eoin McGonigal SC, for former Esat Digifone chairman Denis O’Brien whose consortium won the licence competition in October 1995.

Mr McGonigal had queried the tribunal legal team’s line of questioning relating to the way civil servants chose Mr O’Brien’s consortium above other bidders.

Mr McGonigal wondered why so much time was being spent on the way the Government’s GSM project team carried out their work given the tribunal’s terms of reference which referred to decisions taken by Mr Lowry. It seemed irrelevant to him whether the ‘t’s were crossed or the ‘i’s dotted, within the process, if Mr Lowry wasn’t involved with the civil servant members of the GSM project team.

Earlier, Mr McGonigal had asked if, as part of the tribunal’s case, they were suggesting that Mr Lowry in some way had an improper relationship, or acted improperly within meetings of the Government’s GSM project team.

Tribunal lawyer Jerry Healy SC said the tribunal was not making a case against Mr McGonigal, or Mr Lowry, or Mr O’Brien. It was simply trying to understand how the process evolved.

Martin Brennan, who chaired the Government’s GSM project team , agreed the team didn’t know the terms under which an original financial backer, Advent International, gave an irrevocable commitment to provide £30m for Mr O’Brien’s Communicorp Group.

Mr Brennan agreed that at no stage during the evaluation process did the team ask for the Advent document to ensure it was in place.