MORIARTY TRIBUNAL: There was nothing sinister in the fact that there were no departmental records of a number of meetings held with representatives of Esat Digifone in May 1996, the former secretary general of the Department of Transport, Energy and Communications, Mr John Loughrey, told the tribunal.
MORIARTY TRIBUNAL: Counsel for the tribunal, Mr John Coughlan SC, said the events of the period up to the issuing of the licence on May 16th, 1996, was "causing the tribunal great concern". He said it was only from a memo written by Telenor executive Mr Arve Johansen that the tribunal had learned of a meeting held in the department on May 3rd, 1996. When the meeting was raised with the department, the officials said they had no memory of it and that no records existed.
However when the tribunal raised the matter with Esat Digifone, it was given copies of notes of the meeting taken by the consortium's solicitor, Mr Owen O'Connell, of William Fry solicitors. They had also received notes of other meetings which had not been recorded by the department.
Mr Coughlan said the tribunal was looking for an answer as to why there were no records of the meetings and why there was no recall of the meetings.
Mr Loughrey said he could readily understand the tribunal's concern. He said that if the department's recording procedures were inadequate then that was something the tribunal should be concerned about "but I do not believe there is anything more sinister behind it". He said he did not believe that for one moment.
He agreed that a member of the public could believe that concealment or suppression lay behind the absence of records, but he did not accept or believe that that was the case. Mr Loughrey was not at the meetings.
The meetings discussed, among other issues, the involvement of Mr Dermot Desmond's IIU Ltd in the Digifone consortium. IIU had replaced a number of financial institutions after the bid for the licence was submitted. Mr Johansen, in his memo, noted his impression arising from the May 3rd meeting that IIU Ltd was not a favourable name from an Irish public point of view. Mr Loughrey said that if financial institutions were seen as "grey and safe" then Mr Desmond "in colour terms, would not be seen as grey".
Mr Coughlan asked about a note by Mr O'Connell recording the content of a telephone call to the solicitor from Mr Fintan Towey, a department official involved in the negotiations. He asked would it not have been better for communications in relation to the licence to have occurred in writing.
Mr Loughrey said it was true that "from the documentation point of view the trail is pretty sparse".
A meeting on May 13th, again between officials and representatives of Esat Digifone, was told the proposed date for the issuing of the licence was May 16th. Mr Loughrey, who was not at the meeting, said there was an inevitability involved in setting a date which he would not have been happy with given that there were still serious matters which had to be dealt with.
One of the issues which had to be dealt with was the financial strength of IIU.
Mr Loughrey is to continue his evidence today.
