ESAT wanted department approval, says O’Brien

ESAT Digifone would never have signed the country’s second mobile phone licence if the Department of Communications was unhappy financier Dermot Desmond had come on board, entrepreneur Denis O’Brien told the Moriarty Tribunal yesterday.

Mr Desmond's International Investment & Underwriting Ltd (IIU) acquired a 25% stake after the joint venture comprising Mr O'Brien's Communicorp Group and Norwegian State telecom firm Telenor won the right to negotiate for the GSM2 licence in late 1995.

Department officials insisted the licence would only be issued if Mr Desmond reduced his stake to the 20% originally intended for institutional investors set out in the bid document. Mr Desmond sold 5% back to the original partners days before the licence was handed over on May 16, 1996.