Civil servant denies his position compromised over phone licence

A CIVIL servant has told the Moriarty Tribunal that at no stage in the competition for the State’s second mobile phone licence was he subjected to any influence intended to compromise his independence.

Lawyers for the Tribunal asked Mr Brennan why it took his Department three days to prepare a speech that the then Minister Michael Lowry read out in the Dáil in April 1996.

The speech attempted to deal with the public controversy around the competition for the State’s second GSM licence.