O’Brien: tribunal is concealing information

MULTI-MILLIONAIRE businessman Denis O’Brien has accused the Moriarty Tribunal of deliberately concealing information which would have been beneficial to his case.

This comes in the wake of the decision by chairman Justice Michael Moriarty not to call economist Dr Peter Bacon as a witness in relation to the awarding of the State’s second mobile phone licence to Esat Digifone.

He had been employed by the tribunal at an estimated cost of €100,000 to draft a report in relation to how the competition for the licence had been conducted.

Mr O’Brien said: “This recent and convenient reappraisal of Mr Bacon’s status is completely at odds with statements made and positions previously adopted by the tribunal.”

Mr Justice Moriarty, in a ruling posted on the tribunal’s website, said he had decided not to call Dr Bacon despite earlier indications he would.

Mr O’Brien said yesterday: “I welcome the release of the tribunal’s long-awaited ruling on the issue as to whether or not the tribunal intended to call Peter Bacon as a witness.

“However, I am extremely concerned as to its contents and by the failure of this ruling to deal with a number of very important issues concerning the attitude and procedures adopted by the tribunal in respect of its dealings with Michael Andersen/Andersen Management International, the internationally-renowned expert Danish consultants retained by the Irish Government in 1995 to advise on the process leading to the awarding of the second mobile phone licence to Esat Digifone.

“I am equally concerned by the tribunal’s failure in this ruling to avail of the opportunity to outline in full for the public benefit the tribunal’s dealings with Peter Bacon and the many serious issues that arose from those dealings as they may affect its ability to make further findings. There must also be a public concern at the failure in this ruling to justify the enormous costs to the State of the tribunal’s engagement with Mr Bacon,” he said.

Mr O’Brien is consulting with his legal team.

“Peter Bacon, an economist, is manifestly not, and never was, an expert in the field of mobile telecommunications competition processes, or indeed in the field of telecommunications generally, and the tribunal’s undisclosed engagement of him in private (prior to any evidence having been heard) in order to undermine the evaluation process leading to the awarding of the second mobile phone licence was completely and fundamentally wrong.

“This position now appears to have been, very belatedly, accepted by the tribunal, but the consequences of this failure to abide by proper procedures and due process remain unaddressed,” said Mr O’Brien.