Former Esat boss says the huge focus on just a few big entrepreneurs in asmall state is a factor driving them out of Ireland, writes JamieSmyth, Technology Reporter

Three years after selling the telecoms firm Esat to British Telecom for €2.3 billion, in what was at the time the largest deal in Irish history, the serial entrepreneur Mr Denis O'Brien finds its difficult to stay out of the news.

Appearances before the Moriarty tribunal to defend his role in Esat's successful bid to win a second mobile phone licence over the past year have raised his profile for all the wrong reasons.

But it is Mr O'Brien's decision to move to Portugal - a move that may have saved him up to €55 million in capital gains tax - that has turned the spotlight back on the entrepreneur in the past month.

The recent publication of an investigation into his private tax affairs by the Revenue Commissioners, and subsequent public criticism by the chairman of the Small Firm's Association, Mr Kieran Crowley, has got the telecoms guru apoplectic with rage.

"In regard to my residency, I can live anywhere in the world and nobody is going to stop me," says Mr Denis O'Brien, who owns an exclusive golfing and holiday resort in the Algarve called the Quinta do Lago estate.

"A basic right within the Treaty of Rome is that people can live and work where they want to. So I make no apologies for where I live.

"This is not like China in the 1970s or 1980s. People can move and live wherever. People can invest and move their capital."

Mr O'Brien was resident in Portugal in 2000 at a time when he sold his stake in Esat to British Telecom for €290 million. At the time Portugal had a zero rate of capital gains tax, compared with 20 per cent in the Republic.

"I have no regrets," says Mr O'Brien, who focuses on how Esat benefited the Irish economy.

"We brought in €900 million of overseas investment to build this (Esat) network and created 2,500 jobs with not one grant from anybody. Irish institutions made a profit of at least €400 million on their investment in Esat and the staff of Esat got at least between €300 and €350 million."

Mr O'Brien describes a thinly veiled attack on tax exiles by the chairman of the Small Firms Association this week as comments from "the ill-informed jumping on the bandwagon".

But the entrepreneur is most annoyed about the publication in the media of details regarding a Revenue Commissioners investigation into his tax affairs. These were published when Mr O'Brien lost a recent Supreme Court case aimed at preventing a Sunday newspaper from publishing a story alleging that he had faced a €55 million tax claim after a Revenue investigation into his tax residency in Portugal.

"I think there is a basic right that people's tax affairs should be between themselves and the Revenue Commissioners," says Mr O'Brien. "People leaking details is just totally unacceptable."

All this attention on his tax and business affairs has persuaded Mr O'Brien to continue living outside the State despite media speculation that he may return.

"I am happier person outside Ireland," he says.

"I enjoy living outside Ireland and have major investments there that are growing. I will certainly not return for the foreseeable future," says Mr O'Brien, who believes the huge focus on just a few big entrepreneurs in a small state is a factor driving them abroad.

He also highlights a pervasive negative attitude towards politicians, Government and entrepreneurs. This is undermining the State's competitiveness and preventing it from moving forward, according to Mr O'Brien.

"We are fast turning into a communist state, we are fast moving towards a communist doctrine. People in this country should be thankful for what has been achieved in the last 10 years.

"Instead I come back to Ireland and people are screaming like spoiled children. We have low inflation, we have very low unemployment, increasing amounts spent on social services and there is absolute criticism of all our politicians no matter what party they are in.

"I think people should really look to where we were in the middle of the 1980s and where we are today."

People should stop dwelling on the past and look to the future, says Mr O'Brien.

"That is the best way to create a more caring society, to support brave initiatives by Government or political parties that will change this country."

He is also extremely critical of the Moriarty tribunal, which is currently investigating the circumstances of the awarding of the second mobile phone licence to Esat.

Unsurprisingly, Mr O'Brien - who gave different evidence to the tribunal than that of his former Esat colleague, Mr Barry Maloney, believes it should be wound up.

"Moriarty is going nowhere, they've heard from 20 civil servants and it is costing at least €100,000 per day."

Mr O'Brien added that it was in the interest of lawyers to keep the tribunals going.

He said the only way to clear up the Moriarty tribunal is to persuade the person who ran the mobile competition, Danish consultant, Mr Michael Andersen, to come to Dublin, even if this requires the Dáil offering him an indemnity.

"Moriarty can't write a report and exonerate everyone until Michael Andersen comes. He is the central witness," he says.

The tribunal has already heard that the consultant, Mr Michael Andersen of Andersen Management International (AMI), has said he is not prepared to give evidence unless the tribunal complies with certain conditions.

Reflecting a sense of injustice at his treatment in the media organs of Sir Anthony O'Reilly, Mr O'Brien says they have made "outrageous allegations against me and my company".

In a bitter personal attack on the O'Reilly empire, Mr O'Brien also refers to the entrepreneur's "ragbag of investments" and the flattering treatment they sometimes get in his newspapers.

Asked if his comments are motivated by the fact that Mr O'Brien failed to win the takeover battle for Eircom, Mr O'Brien says his wife opened a bottle of champagne when he didn't win the business.

"My business interests in the Caribbean are more valuable than what I would have created out of owning a bit of Eircom," he says.

Mr O'Brien says he will only invest selectively in the Republic in the future. Asked if this is because of begrudgery, he says people can draw their own conclusions on that.