Analysis: The Moriarty tribunal has been hearing of a number of claims and counter-claims in relation to conversations involving Michael Lowry, Denis O'Brien and Sir Anthony O'Reilly, writes Colm Keena.
The Moriarty tribunal yesterday heard statements concerning Independent Newspapers and its role in Irish society. Some of the matters involved may yet be heard in evidence.
The former Fine Gael minister for transport, energy and communications, Mr Michael Lowry, has told the tribunal that the 1994- 1997 rainbow government to which he belonged believed that the editorial content of Independent Newspapers was influenced by the fact that commercial decisions taken by the government were not helpful to the Independent group.
He furthermore indicated his belief that the famous Payback Time editorial on the front page of the Irish Independent on the morning of the 1997 general election was the result of the dispute between the government and Independent Newspapers over these commercial issues.
Sir Anthony O'Reilly, chairman of Independent News and Media, has responded to Mr Lowry's statement to the tribunal.
Mr Lowry has said the two men had a conversation at the Curragh racecourse in the summer of 1995 during which the mobile licence competition was mentioned as was the government's policy on pirate TV broadcast operators. Sir Anthony has said the licence competition was not mentioned but that the TV issue was.
At the time his group was very concerned that the government was not closing down the pirate radio stations. Independent had invested £75 million in the TV broadcast business.
Sir Anthony did not refer in his statement to Mr Lowry's comment that it was the rainbow government's view that the editorial content of Independent newspapers was influenced by the commercial interests of its owners.
The issue is tangential to the matters being inquired into by the tribunal and it is not clear to what extent, if any, it will be further inquired into.
In his reply to Mr Lowry's statement, Sir Anthony said he thought his first meeting with Mr Lowry had been in Galmoy, Co Kilkenny, in Sepember 1995.
He said that on that date, Mr Lowry said to him that the consortium in which Independent was involved had made an oral presentation to the department and had not done well.
The consortium had in fact just made a presentation and the tribunal is now going to investigate how Mr Lowry knew that there had been an oral presentation by the consortium and how he knew what the assessment of the consortium had been.
Another matter the Moriarty tribunal is going to investigate is how Mr Denis O'Brien and his consortium knew in September 1995 that the assessment group examining the various bids believed the financial arrangements behind Mr O'Brien's company, Communicorp, were weak.
The group had made such an assessment by September but had not yet decided if this would be a "scored" issue in terms of selecting the winning bid. Mr O'Brien had made an oral presentation to the department during which he and his partners had been asked about the matter.
The tribunal is to examine statements during this presentation which it believes misrepresented the irrevocability of commitments which had been made by financial institutions to Communicorp. It is also to examine how the group came to accept these statements.
Mr Per Simonsen, an executive with Telenor, the Norwegian company which formed part of the Digifone consortium, has said he was told in September 1995 by Mr O'Brien that he, Mr O'Brien, had met Mr Lowry and that Mr Lowry had suggested that Mr Dermot Desmond's IIU Ltd - International Investment and Underwriting - get involved in the Digifone bid.
Mr O'Brien and Mr Lowry have said they met in a pub in Dublin, Hartigan's of Leeson Street, on September 15th, 1995, but did not have the conversation outlined by Mr Simonsen.
By September 29th, IIU and Digifone had signed a deal and the institutions which were previously to have been involved in Digifone were out. Mr Desmond and Mr O'Brien have said their discussions in relation to IIU becoming involved began on August 10th, 1995, at a football match in Glasgow.
Yeterday we saw some scorings made by the assessment group as it progressed with its work.
On August 30th, 1995, Digifone was ranked third out of the six bidders. By September 20th, Digifone was still third on the list. Mr John Coughlan SC, counsel for the tribunal, continues with his lengthy opening statement today.
By the time he gets to October 25th, 1995, Digifone will be the winner.