Civil servant denies Desmond link

A RETIRED civil servant told the Moriarty Tribunal he never had any direct business dealings with financier Dermot Desmond.

John Loughrey said he only became aware Mr Desmond’s IIU company held a 25% stake in Esat Digifone in April 1996, a month before the consortium received the licence to run the country’s second mobile telephone licence.

The former secretary general in the Department of Communications said he was surprised and a little annoyed when he discovered Digifone’s shareholding configuration had changed since the previous October, when it won the GSM licence competition.