SOME OF the civil servants charged with choosing the winner of the 1995 mobile phone licence competition had misgivings about the result right up to its announcement, according to documents shown at the Moriarty tribunal.
However, the lead consultant to the process, Prof Michael Andersen, told Michael McDowell SC, for the tribunal, that he believed the civil servants who recorded their misgivings in the documents may have been “covering their backs”.
He also said that at the time there was talk of an upcoming position for a telecoms regulator and there may have been some “struggling” between civil servants who were interested in the position.
A note from the time by civil servant Ed O’Callaghan recorded his view that, at the time the result was announced on October 25th, 1995, there had been “no vote – effectively no decision by the project team” that was to have chosen the winner.
Prof Andersen said he was surprised by this, but noted that the memo expressed frustration. He said he had not known of a meeting on October 23rd, 1995, where some members of the group went to see the then secretary general of the Department of Communications John Loughrey and it was agreed more time would be given to the group. However, the then minister for communications Michael Lowry announced that Esat Digifone had won the competition two days later.
On October 23rd members of the regulatory group in the department wrote a memo stating they could not justify the result on the basis of the draft report they had. Prof Andersen said he could not remember being told this.
He said he was “shell shocked” when, at a meeting on October 23rd, Seán McMahon of the regulatory section in Mr Lowry’s department said he was not in favour of Esat winning. This was because of the section’s earlier experience with Esat’s founder, Denis O’Brien, in relation to landline issues. Prof Andersen said the matter was not one of the evaluation criteria.
Mr Lowry was told the outcome of the process before it could be considered by a meeting on October 9th of the steering group charged with selecting the winner.
Asked if he considered this to be appropriate Prof Andersen said the competition was an important decision and he would not be surprised if the minister was interested in how it was proceeding.
Prof Andersen said he was not told Dermot Desmond’s IIU Ltd was underwriting the Esat Digifone consortium. A letter received from IIU in the course of the licence competition was returned to Esat founder Denis O’Brien by Martin Brennan, the civil servant who was heading up the group that was evaluating the bids, as the date for submissions to the competition had passed. Prof Andersen said he was not told of the letter. He said Mr Brennan’s action was in accordance with what he believed should have been done.
Mr McDowell has finished his examination of Prof Andersen and barristers for other parties are to begin questioning him today.
