Denis O'Brien
Not favoured, Tribunal told
The Moriarty Tribunal has been told that the Department of Transport, Energy and Communications did not favour businessman Denis O'Brien, in the competition for the second mobile phone licence.
The Tribunal is investigating the awarding of the second licence in the mid 1990s to a consortium that included ESAT Telecom.
The Moriarty Tribunal was told that from 1993 there was growing discussion of the liberalisation of the telecoms market in this country.
In 1995 the late Jim Mitchell TD was acting as a consultant to Denis O'Brien's company Esat Telecom. Following a meeting with Michael Lowry, the then Minister for Communications in January 1995, Mr Mitchell wrote a note indicating that Mr O'Brien was 'not favoured by the Department'.
Denis O'Brien told the tribunal that he was not made aware of that remark by Mr Mitchell. Mr Mitchell was then asked by Denis O'Brien to set up a meeting with the Minister.
Mr O'Brien told the tribunal he felt, that as a player in the market, the Minister was a key person to meet and he wanted to brief him on his experiences to date. He said that at that stage, the Department was struggling with the liberalisation process.
A meeting between Mr O'Brien and Mr Lowry, attended by Mr Mitchell, took place in early February 1995. Mr O'Brien described this as a short, 15 minute 'courtesy' meeting.
He said he wanted to tell the Minister what Esat was trying to do, but as he was a new Minister with a new portfolio he did not want to blind him with details.
