Man questioned on Lowry, O'Brien meeting in pub

Moriarty Tribunal: A Norwegian businessman said he had no memory of being told about a controversial meeting between Mr Michael Lowry and Mr Denis O'Brien, before being reminded of it during a meeting with a Telenor executive prior to his appearance at the tribunal.

Mr Knut Haga, who worked for Telenor in 1995 and 1996, told Mr Eoin McGonigal SC, for Mr O'Brien, about a meeting in Oslo with Mr Per Simonsen, of Telenor, as well as a Telenor lawyer and two lawyers from Kilroys solicitors, Dublin. The meeting occurred in the spring or summer of 2002.

Kilroys are acting for Telenor in relation to the tribunal.

During the meeting, Mr Simonsen mentioned being told in 1995 by Mr O'Brien that he, Mr O'Brien, had met Mr Lowry in a Dublin pub. Mr Haga said that it was when Mr Simonsen said this that he recalled being told of it by Mr Simonsen in 1995.

Mr Haga's recollection of the 1995 conversation was contained in an addendum to his statement of intended evidence to the tribunal. He said he was told some time in late September, early October 1995, by Mr Simonsen, that Mr O'Brien had said to Mr Simonsen that he had had a meeting with the then minister for transport, energy and communications, Mr Lowry, in a pub.

In his evidence on Tuesday, Mr Haga said his recall was that his conversation with Mr Simonsen had occurred in the Davenport Hotel, Dublin, and that neither he nor Mr Simonsen had taken Mr O'Brien's story seriously. In fact Mr O'Brien did meet Mr Lowry in a Dublin pub in the aftermath of the All-Ireland football final on September 17th, 1995. Mr Simonsen, in a statement of intended evidence, has said he was told by Mr O'Brien that the two men discussed the mobile phone licence competition but both Mr O'Brien and Mr Lowry have said they did not.

Yesterday Mr McGonigal brought Mr Haga through his diary of 1995. The diary indicated that Mr Haga was not in Dublin in late September or in October 1995. He agreed with Mr McGonigal that the diary showed that if the 1995 conversation in the Davenport did occur, then it must have been in November 1995 when Mr Haga was in Dublin.

Mr Haga said that before he went to the Oslo meeting he may have had a "very vague" recollection of the conversation with Mr Simonsen.

Mr Haga told Ms Jacqueline O'Brien, for the tribunal, that he believed there had been two Oslo meetings with Mr Simonsen, one in the spring/summer of 2002, and one in the summer of 2003.

He believed the issue of the conversation with Mr O'Brien had been discussed at the first Oslo meeting and not the second. He said he could remember thinking in 1995 that Mr O'Brien was "name-dropping" because he could recall that "we had a little laugh about it".

He was asked by the chairman, Mr Justice Moriarty, whether he had been told that Mr O'Brien's conversation with Mr Lowry had to do with the mobile phone licence. Mr Haga said he was not told that the conversation had included discussion of the licence. A new witness from Telenor is to begin evidence today.