Widow of Lowry and O’Brien associate to give evidence at tribunal

THE widow of a former associate of both Denis O’Brien and Michael Lowry has been called to give evidence to the Moriarty Tribunal today.

Maureen Austin is expected to be asked about her knowledge about a number of dealings in which her husband appeared to act as an intermediary between the businessman and the politician.

Her late husband, David Austin, a former Smurfit executive and Fine Gael fundraiser who died in 1998, was a close friend and associate of Mr O’Brien and Mr Lowry.

The long-running inquiry is examining if there was any undue political interference by Mr Lowry in the awarding of the state’s second mobile phone licence to Mr O’Brien’s Esat consortium in 1996 when the former Fine Gael TD was Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications.

It is also investigating whether there was any financial links between the two men. Mr O’Brien and Mr Lowry have strenuously denied that there was anything improper in the manner in which the licence was won by Esat.

Ms Austin is likely to be asked if she knows about a transfer of Stg£150,000 by Mr O’Brien from a bank account in the Isle of Man, shortly the lucrative mobile phone licence was granted in 1996 to an account in her husband’s name, at a bank in Jersey.

Most of the money was subsequently transferred onwards to an account in the Isle of Man held by Mr Lowry. The sum of £147,000 was returned to Mr Austin by Mr Lowry on the day the McCracken Tribunal – which revealed how Mr Lowry received secret payments from forer supermarket tycoon Ben Dunne – was formally established in 1997.

Shortly after making the transfer, Mr O’Brien informed his then Esat colleague, Barry Moloney, that a payment he had tried to make to Mr Lowry had “got stuck” with an intermediary.

However, Mr O’Brien subsequently insisted that such a claim was a spoof designed to get Mr Moloney to release funds requested by him.

The businessman gave evidence to the tribunal that the £150,000 paid to Mr Austin was related to the purchase of a property in Spain from Mr Austin. In turn, Mr Lowry has claimed he intended using the payment from Mr Austin towards the renovation of a house he owned in the Dublin suburb of Blackrock and the money provided by his friend was intended as a loan.

The tribunal has heard evidence that Mr Austin was also involved in a $50,000 payment by Esat’s Norwegian partner, Telenor, to Fine Gael at the request of Mr O’Brien in 1995 – which was to be reimbursed to the telecom firm by Esat Digifone.

Ms Austin may also be asked about Esat shares held in her husband’s name which were bought by Mr O’Brien. The Esat founder claims the shares were registered in Mr Austin’s name in error instead of in the name of his father-in-law, Noel Walshe.

The Moriarty Tribunal refused to comment on Ms Austin’s appearance today. Unlike the Mahon Tribunal it refuses to reveal the names of people it intends to call to give evidence.

The tribunal is also due to hear from another witness, named Massimo Preltz of Advent, a company involved in providing the funding for ESAT.