The Moriarty (Payments to Politicians) tribunal resumes public hearings today having last sat in public in July.
The tribunal is to hear new evidence into the granting of a mobile phone licence to Esat Digifone. The inquiry is now into its second year of investigation into the matter with most of that time having been spent in private investigative work.
The block of public hearings being initiated today will begin with an opening statement from the tribunal during which it will outline some of what it has learned since July last and the witnesses it intends calling over the coming period.
The tribunal has already heard evidence from the group of civil servants who assessed the six bids received for the licence in 1995. All of the civil servants said nothing had occurred in the course of their work aimed at influencing their views in favour of the winning consortium.
The tribunal has yet to hear evidence from persons connected with unsuccessful bids who had encounters with the then minister for communications Mr Michael Lowry. These witnesses are expected to include Sir Anthony O'Reilly.
It is also to hear evidence from the principals behind the companies that established Esat Digifone. The companies were Mr Denis O'Brien's Esat Telecom, Norwegian firm Telenor, and Mr Dermot Desmond's IIU Limited. All of this is expected to bring the tribunal well into next year.
The hearings into the awarding of the licence to Esat Digifone arose as a result of financial transactions discovered by the tribunal which may link Mr O'Brien to Mr Lowry. The tribunal has heard evidence concerning a $50,000 (US) donation to Fine Gael in late 1995 by Esat Digifone-Telenor. Mr Lowry was a leading Fine Gael fundraiser at the time.
The tribunal has also heard evidence of a number of UK property transactions in the late 1990s involving Mr Lowry and Mr O'Brien's former accountant, Mr Aidan Phelan. Mr O'Brien has said he knew nothing about these transactions.
The tribunal chairman, Mr Justice Moriarty, has described the inquiry into the licence award as "a tribunal within a tribunal". The public hearings involve legal fees of approximately €40,000 a day. If the tribunal does discover anything untoward about the granting of the licence to Esat Digifone, it is possible that the second ranked bidder, the Persona Consortium, will seek huge damages from the State.
