Columnist and tribunal witness steps down from Irish Times role

Sarah Carey has resigned as a columnist with the Irish Times.

By Claire O'Sullivan

A newspaper columnist, who was a witness at the Moriarty Tribunal, has said she “had no choice” but to resign her position after a meeting with the paper’s editor.

Sarah Carey stepped down from her role with the Irish Times this evening and announced that she will be “taking a break” from presenting TV3’s Midweek show also.

Ms Carey issued a statement defending her role as a witness to the tribunal and stating that she “did not lie under oath to the tribunal”.

Ms Carey worked for Esat as a marketing co-ordinator between 1995 and 1998 and had involvement in the bid for the second mobile phone licence and therefore became a witness to the Moriarty Tribunal.

Earlier this week, she re-asserted her belief on RTE’s Prime Time that there was nothing “unsound” about ESAT’s licence bid.

In her statement she said: “On Wednesday morning, at 11.30, I was instructed to scrap a column I had written for the paper for this week and, instead, to write about the Moriarty Report and what it said about me. At no time was it indicated to me that my position was in question”.

Ms Carey leaked details of Denis O’Brien’s political donations to a Sunday Tribune journalist in 2003 — these included donations to the Progressive Democrats amongst other parties.

She said: “When queried by the Moriarty tribunal on this, in order to protect the confidentiality of my dealings with (the journalist), I told my legal team I had not been the source of the leak.”

However later, when giving evidence to the tribunal she says she told “the whole truth about the leak and denial”.

This article was edited on Jan 27, 2020