A former lawyer and adviser to Esat Digifone has told the Moriarty Tribunal the company achieved no advantage in the application process for a second GSM phone licence through access to part of a letter from the European Commission sent to the-then Minister for Communications.
Mr Jarlath Burke, who acted as legal and regulatory counsel to Esat Telecom from October 1994 to June 2000, is being questioned by tribunal lawyers on a statement he made to the tribunal.
Part of a letter discovered in Esat's files was addressed to the former Minister for Communications, Mr Michael Lowry, at a sensitive time in the application process for Ireland's second GSM licence in 1995.
At the time, Esat was concerned that the national telecommunciations firm, Telecom Eireann/Eircell, should not have an unfair advantage in the process.
Mr Burke's statement said Esat was concerned that Telecom Eireann might use whatever "political muscle" it had available to keep its application fee for the licence down.
However, Mr Burke said he had no recollection of receiving the first page of a letter from the European Commission's competition directorate, as it was not a letter of any significance.
He also said he wished to dispute the characterisation of this letter as "confidential". It was not marked as confidential and it was a matter for the European Commission to decide who received extracts of the letter and on what terms.
Mr Burke said he probably received a faxed copy of the first page of the letter from an official in DGIV, the competition directorate, although he could not recall receiving it.
He said Esat "could not have been advantaged in the slightest" by having the information contained in the letter. Mr Burke denied obscuring the top and bottom of the document to disguise where it came from.
Counsel for the tribunal, Mr John Coughlan, said this was a matter for the tribunal to decide.
Mr Eoin McGonigal, counsel for Mr Denis O'Brien, formerly of Esat Digifone, said he proposes to ask the tribunal to go back to the Oireachtas to ask it to address the question of indemnity for Mr Michael Andersen of Danish consultants AMI, who has sought indemnity before he gives evidence to the tribunal.
Mr McGonigal said he was also concerned that this "may be an area" where counsel for the public interest may become involved.
The tribunal opened its first sitting since July at Dublin Castle this morning.