Failure to keep record not sinister, says official

FORMER senior civil servant Regina Finn told the Moriarty Tribunal yesterday there was nothing sinister in not keeping an official record of a key meeting with Esat Digifone representatives on May 3, 1996.

Owen O'Connell of William Fry Solicitors, who acted for the winning Digifone consortium, kept the only available record of what transpired during the negotiations immediately before the State's second mobile phone licence was issued to Digifone.

The Denis O'Brien-led consortium beat five other applicants to win the licence competition and former minister Michael Lowry announced the result on October 26, 1995.