THE MORIARTY tribunal is scheduled to hear evidence tomorrow from an English solicitor as part of its inquiries into matters to do with politician Michael Lowry and businessman Denis O’Brien.
Christopher Vaughan is to be questioned as part of the tribunal’s inquiries into whether Mr O’Brien gave financial support to the former minister for transport, energy and communications.
Mr Vaughan acted for the purchasers in three property transactions in Britain in the late 1990s.
The tribunal has been told that two of the transactions involved Mr Lowry and Mr O’Brien’s then accountant, Aidan Phelan, but had nothing to do with Mr O’Brien, while the third transaction involved Mr O’Brien but had nothing to do with Mr Lowry.
The transactions involved property in, respectively, Cheadle, Mansfield and Doncaster.
The tribunal concluded its sittings some time ago without hearing evidence from Mr Vaughan, who lives in England and had declined requests to travel here to give evidence. However in January the tribunal heard that Mr Vaughan was due in Dublin and contacted him and asked him to come to Dublin Castle.
The tribunal sent out its preliminary findings to interested parties late last year and Mr Vaughan was asked to visit the tribunal to discuss findings that concerned him. When he did so he was served with the summons.
The summons ordered him to appear before the tribunal “forthwith”. When the tribunal sat for a short hearing just minutes later, Mr Vaughan agreed to return at a later date and is now due to appear tomorrow.
The brief hearing in January was told that Mr Vaughan had been travelling to Dublin to meet Mr O’Brien’s solicitor, Paul Meagher.
Mr Meagher told the hearing the meeting was “for the purpose of assisting me and our legal team in preparing detailed replying submissions to your provisional findings of November 18th, and . . . that I wanted to try and establish whether Mr Vaughan would be willing and available to attend the tribunal to give evidence”.
When Mr Meagher said Mr Vaughan was to meet members of the tribunal “to deal with the provisional findings where Mr Vaughan is referred to”, Jerry Healy SC, for the tribunal, interrupted and said there should be no references made to the provisional findings, which were confidential.
It also transpired at January’s brief hearing that Mr O’Brien is no longer being represented by William Fry solicitors, the firm which represented him since he first became involved with the tribunal in 2001.
The tribunal was informed by Mr Meagher that Mr Vaughan was coming to Dublin and it in turn contacted Mr Vaughan’s solicitor.
Two years ago, when Mr O’Brien was giving evidence to the tribunal, it emerged that Mr Vaughan had been in Dublin in March of that year and had so informed LK Shields, a solicitors firm working for the company through which Mr O’Brien had bought property in Doncaster.
John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, pointed out that if the tribunal had been informed, it could have served a witness summons on the English solicitor.
Mr O’Brien’s Esat Digifone won the 1995 mobile phone licence competition which was run by Mr Lowry’s department. Mr Lowry has said he played no role in the selection of the winner.
The tribunal has spent years investigating the competition and has issued preliminary findings to interested parties.
When Esat was subsequently sold to British Telecom, Mr O’Brien’s share of the proceeds was €290 million. He went on to set up a new and successful mobile phone company, Digicel, in the Caribbean. He also moved his tax residency offshore.
As well as his telecommunications interests, he is also the owner of a number of Irish radio stations, including Newstalk and Today FM, and he has a significant interest in the affairs of in Independent News Media, the largest newspaper group in the Republic.
Earlier this year, three directors representing his interests were appointed to the plc’s board and Sir Anthony O’Reilly announced his intention to retire.