Cowen ‘wanted quick decision on licence’

MICHAEL Lowry’s predecessor as communications minister wanted civil servants to waste no time in selecting a winner to run the State’s second mobile phone system, the Moriarty Tribunal heard yesterday.

Civil servant Maev Nic Lochlainn explained: "When Brian Cowen mentioned the idea of issuing a mobile phone licence, he was asking Martin Brennan to issue it within three months to have a winner and to have a licence which would suggest there was pressure to get the job done."

Mr Brennan chaired the project team of civil servants, drawn mostly from Mr Lowry's department, who selected Esat Digifone from five other consortia competing for the GSM2 licence in October 1995.