Moriarty findings to be made public

THE DRAFT findings of the Moriarty tribunal in relation to its marathon inquiry into the awarding of the State's second mobile phone licence to Denis O'Brien's Esat Digifone consortium in 1996, may be revealed in the coming weeks in the course of public hearings.

It is understood the tribunal may hold special sittings to allow parties directly affected by the draft findings to give direct sworn testimony and to challenge the draft conclusions of the tribunal chairman, Mr Justice Michael Moriarty.

In the course of this process the draft findings would come into the public domain. The hearings could be heard as early as next month. The public hearings of the tribunal effectively ended in June 2007, at which time it had not been expected that it would sit again.

The chairman's draft findings from his long-awaited report were sent out to the parties affected late last year, in order to give them an opportunity to respond. This had been expected to occur by way of confidential correspondence, but the idea of holding public hearings instead has arisen in the course of subsequent communications.

The tribunal threatened The Irish Times with an injunction in late November when it was about to report on some of the tribunal's draft findings. The story was not published because of the threat of legal action.

Mr O'Brien himself, and Michael Lowry, the minister for transport, energy and communications at the time of the licence award, could all return to the witness box.

A number of civil servants involved in selecting Digifone as the winner of the licence competition run by Mr Lowry's then department might also appear. An interim finding on the licence competition process and related matters was published by the tribunal chairman on September 29th, 2005.

That interim finding also reviewed the so called "money trail" aspects of his inquiry, which have to do with whether Mr Lowry received money or financial assistance from Mr O'Brien, as well as matters to do with how Dermot Desmond came to be a shareholder in Esat Digifone.

Very little by way of fresh evidence has been heard since the publication of that interim ruling, which reviewed the evidence heard up to then.

Hearings to do with the ownership of Doncaster Rovers Football Club Ltd, a UK company Mr O'Brien told the tribunal he owned, were delayed because of High Court and Supreme Court challenges by Mr O'Brien, but eventually went ahead in June 2007.

The Moriarty tribunal was established in 1997 to look into payments to the late Charles Haughey and to Mr Lowry. It published its first report in December 2006.