The Moriarty tribunal is conducting one of the most in-depth inquiries in the State's history. Colm Keena reports
The differing statements given to the Moriarty tribunal by Sir Anthony O'Reilly and Mr Michael Lowry were produced as part of one of the most in-depth inquiries ever conducted in this State.
Apart from two days in July when it sat in public session, the tribunal has been working in private since early November of last year investigating the awarding of the State's second mobile phone licence to Esat Digifone.
Mr Lowry was the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications at the time of the licence competition. The competition was run by his Department and the tribunal is investigating whether Mr Lowry interfered in any way with the process. It has already investigated a number of financial transactions involving Mr Lowry and the main force behind the Esat Digifone licence bid, Mr Denis O'Brien.
As part of this lengthy private inquiry, the tribunal has considered not only the actions of Esat Digifone during the licence competition but also that of the five losing bidders. These include Irish Cellular Telephones, a consortium in which Independent News & Media and Princes Holdings had an interest. (Independent had an interest in Princes Holdings.)
A dispute between the so-called Rainbow Coalition and the Independent group in the year before the 1997 General Election was publicised in the wake of the election.
An Independent group memo of a September 1996 meeting between two Government advisers and two Independent representives was published in The Irish Times in 1997. The Independent representatives said they were "thoroughly disappointed" by the meeting, which had discussed the issue of pirate TV broadcast operators. The memo recorded the Independent representatives as saying the Government would lose Independent Newspapers as friends.
There was no mention in the memo of the GSM issue. However Mr Bruton has told the tribunal in a statement that Sir Anthony, in July 1996 at a meeting in west Cork, expressed his unhappiness with the outcome of the GSM licence competition. He said Sir Anthony also mentioned the pirate TV broadcasters at the same meeting. This meeting led in turn to the September meeting covered by the memo.
Sir Anthony has told the tribunal he was not aggrieved by the GSM licence competition result and that he did not express any such emotion to Mr Bruton.
By the time the General Election took place in June 1997, Mr Lowry's political career was destroyed. A story in the Irish Independent outlining how Mr Ben Dunne and Dunnes Stores had paid for an extension on Mr Lowry's home, led to Mr Lowry's resignation from office.
Soon afterwards, The Irish Times published a story saying Mr Charles Haughey had also received money from Mr Dunne. This led to the McCracken tribunal which in turn spawned the Moriarty tribunal.