Official surprised at speed of licence announcement

THE speed at which Michael Lowry announced Esat Digifone as winner of the competition for the State’s second mobile phone licence surprised former top civil servant Fintan Towey, the Moriarty Tribunal heard yesterday.

Mr Towey worked through the night of October 24, 1995 to make sure the final report was ready but the former communication's minister informed the Taoiseach and other leaders of the Fine Gael-led Rainbow Coalition without seeing the document.

"It all happened very, very quickly," said Brussels-based Mr Towey, who acted as full-time co-ordinator of the project team that evaluated the six GSM2 contenders eight years ago.