The chair of the committee which awarded the State's second mobile phone licence to Esat Digifone in 1995, today said it was not unusual a decision on the successful bid was made before a final report on the competition was delivered.
Mr Martin Brennan said the committee were undecided on the day the then Minister for Communications, Mr Michael Lowry told then taoiseach, Mr John Bruton and cabinet colleagues that Esat was to be awarded the licence.
Mr Brennan said the committee had decided to defer the decision pending another meeting the following week but later decided a resolution could not be reached and the leading tender at the time, Esat Digifone, should be declared the winner.
The tribunal heard the winner of the licence was declared before committee's final report was in the possession of Mr Lowry.
Mr Brennan agreed that the committee was not unanimous in its backing of the Digifone bid but that under a scoring system the consortium's bid was 22 points ahead of the second-place bid, from Persona.
Counsel for the tribunal Mr Jerry Healy SC questioned why Mr Lowry told Mr Bruton, Mr Dick Spring and Mr Prionsias De Rossa - all serving government ministers at the time - that Esat Digifone had won the competition when he did not have a copy of the final report.
Mr Brennan said it was not unusual for a minister to take that course of action and that by the time of the meeting he (Brennan) "was in a position to say everything was agreed".