Sir Anthony O'Reilly has accused the former minister, Mr Michael Lowry, of commenting on the prospects of his consortium's bid for the second mobile phone licence prior to the completion of the competition.
Sir Anthony claimed Mr Lowry made a comment to him along the lines of, "your fellows didn't do too well today" at an informal meeting between the two men at the opening of Arcon mines in Galmoy, Co Kilkenny on September 15th 1995.
In a statement to the tribunal, read into evidence yesterday, Sir Anthony said: "I told him (Mr Lowry) that I did not understand what he was saying.
"He explained to me that he was talking about the presentations which were being made by various applicants for the second mobile phone licence."
Sir Anthony said he subsequently learnt that AT&T, one of six companies in a consortium involving Princes Holdings Ltd and Independent Newspapers Plc, both of which he owned, had made a presentation on September 14th 1995 to the government's GSM evaluation committee.
"I can only therefore presume that my recollection is not 100 per cent correct and that Mr Lowry must have said to me, 'your fellows didn't do too well yesterday'. The fact remains that such a statement was made to me by Mr Lowry." Sir Anthony said the comment had been made by Mr Lowry, whom he said he had not previously met, as the pair were walking to a refreshment tent following the Arcon opening ceremony.
Mr Lowry's constituency was located near the mines.
Sir Anthony said he wished to emphasise that he neither raised the issue of his consortium's application, nor the previous day's presentation by "my fellows".
In fact, he said, he was totally unaware that such a presentation had been made.
