The announcement of the winner of the second GSM mobile phone licence was made by Mr Michael Lowry before officials in his department had signed off or voted on their final report, the Moriarty tribunal heard this afternoon.
The tribunal is investigating whether the bidding process was accelerated to the advantage of Mr Denis O'Brien's Esat consortium and at the behest of the then minister for transport, energy and communications, Mr Lowry.
Continuing his reading of the tribunal's opening statement, Mr John Coughlan SC for the tribunal said that there was no document in the department's files recording a meeting of the GSM project group - the departmental group charged with assessing the licence bidders - to vote on or select a winner of the licence.
The announcement of the awarding of the licence was made by Mr Lowry on October 25th, 1995 - a day before the project group was due to asses a final report from Danish consultants Anderson Management International (AMI).
Handwritten notes of the chronology of events leading up to the awarding of the announcement made by a department official, Mr Ed O'Callaghan, indicate that Mr Lowry knew the winner of the second GSM licence as early as October 9th, 1995.
Mr O'Callaghan notes that he was informed during the subsequent period that Mr Lowry wanted to go to the Government and announce the winner on October 24th, 1995.
The tribunal also heard that in the last month of the assessment process that Esat's bid was considered by the project team to be considerably ahead of it's nearest rival, Persona.
In draft reports it was recorded that Esat was "clearly the best application" and was ahead of it's rival in the technical area and marketing area. Esat also offered a nationwide network coverage of 80 per cent after start-up while Persona only offered 40 per cent.
The tribunal also heard that Esat's use of radio frequencies would be more economical than Persona's and while Persona's domestic tariff's were eight per cent cheaper than Esat's, overall, the two would charge broadly the same amount to consumers.
The tribunal will continue with it's opening statement tomorrow at 11 a.m.