O’Brien’s rare whiskey unacceptable

BUSINESSMAN Denis O’Brien sent six bottles of rare whiskey by taxi to civil servants after his consortium was selected for the country’s second GSM phone licence, the Moriarty Tribunal heard yesterday.

Martin Brennan, assistant secretary in the Department of Communications, said the whiskey arrived days after the win by the O’Brien-led Esat Digifone consortium in late 1995.

The six bottles of Midleton Very Rare, valued at £75 per bottle, were addressed to named individuals from the project team, he said: “I made contact with Denis O’Brien to ensure they were returned to him. He protested that they were no more than a private token of appreciation, but I reminded him that we still had months of licence negotiations to complete. They were sent back with the full support of the name recipients.”