Senior civil servant acted as ‘devil’s advocate’

SENIOR civil servant Ed O’Callaghan told the Moriarty Tribunal yesterday he was never put under political pressure in his life.

Formerly with the Department of Communications regulatory division, he described how he acted as ‘devil’s advocate’ on the project team that selected the winner of the competition for the State’s second mobile phone licence in October 1995.

When he read the Danish consultants’ second draft report indicating Esat Digifone was the winner, his purpose was to question it, probe it and test it. “I brought a critical disposition to the report,” he added. “That’s my task.”