Moriarty Tribunal: The Moriarty tribunal is not inquiring in any detail into Mr Denis O'Brien's dealings with the Department of Transport, Energy and Communications over his fixed-line telecoms business, the tribunal heard.
The comment was made by the tribunal chairman, Mr Justice Moriarty, during the evidence yesterday of Mr Richard O'Toole, the former chef de cabinet of Mr Peter Sutherland during his period as a European Commissioner.
Mr O'Brien had dealings with the Department when Mr Michael Lowry was minister, about both his fixed-line and mobile phone telecoms business. Mr Lowry was the de facto regulator at the time Mr O'Brien was competing with the then State-owned Telecom Éireann for the fixed-line market. He was also minister at the time Mr O'Brien was the main force behind the consortium that won the State's second mobile phone licence.
A few years ago the tribunal discovered financial transactions that may link Mr O'Brien to Mr Lowry.
It subsequently decided to investigate the mobile phone licence competition which Mr O'Brien's consortium won. That inquiry, which has been under way for two years, is expected to come to an end around the middle of this year. No evidence has emerged showing Mr Lowry interfering in the process to benefit Mr O'Brien.
Mr Justice Moriarty's comment yesterday indicates that the tribunal is not considering conducting a similar inquiry into Mr O'Brien's dealings with Mr Lowry's Department in relation to the fixed-line business.
In his evidence yesterday Mr O'Toole told Ms Jacqueline O'Brien, for the tribunal, how he was contacted by Mr O'Brien in 1995 and asked if he would work as a consultant to Mr O'Brien's businesses. Mr O'Toole agreed to do so on a part-time basis. During his work for Mr O'Brien in relation to the mobile phone business, he worked on negotiating a shareholders' agreement between Esat Telecom, Telenor and IIU Ltd, the three partners in the Esat Digifone consortium.
He said his work for Mr O'Brien came to an end in March 1996, when he had to devote himself full-time to a project in Switzerland.
Mr O'Toole told Mr Richard Nesbitt SC, for the Department, that it was "crystal clear" the Department would not be issuing the licence to the consortium until it knew who the shareholders in the consortium were. Asked if he had ever felt any sense that there was an attempt to hide the involvement of IIU from the Department, he said: "Absolutely not." The tribunal adjourned until next Tuesday.
