Moriarty tribunal: The chairman of the Persona consortium, which is suing the State for potentially huge damages over the operation of the 1995 mobile phone licence competition, indicated yesterday that part of its case would centre on crucial meetings in Copenhagen in September 1995.
Also yesterday the tribunal chairman criticised what he said was an attempt by Denis O'Brien's senior counsel, Eoin McGonigal, to damage the reputation of tribunal senior counsel Jerry Healy. He said he might refer to it in his final report.
Dublin businessman Tony Boyle, chairman of Sigma Communications Group, told the tribunal he and his business partner, Michael McGinley, now each own half of the formerly international consortium Persona. The consortium came second in the 1995 mobile phone licence competition, which was won by Mr O'Brien's Esat Digifone.
Mr Boyle was asked by senior counsel for Michael Lowry, Roderick O'Hanlon, about a statement Mr Boyle had made in private to the tribunal legal team to the effect that, in his view, "strings were pulled" by Michael Lowry, departmental secretary John Loughrey, and civil servant Martin Brennan, when the department of communications was running the 1995 competition.
A tribunal memo recorded Mr Boyle as saying, "they constructed the criteria, the weightings and effectively had [ Danish consultants] Anderson rubber-stamp them. Whoever had access to the weightings of the criteria, won the competition." Asked for his reasons for making these claims, Mr Boyle said he was not going to discuss the basis of Persona's case "but it is very clear the criteria were a moving target throughout the process".
He said the evidence heard from Mr Brennan was that "the original criteria withered away in Copenhagen and were replaced by a new set of criteria".
This was a reference to meetings in Copenhagen attended by Mr Brennan and others where final scores were applied to the various bids for the licence. The meetings ended with Esat coming out ahead of Persona.
Mr O'Hanlon said there was no evidence Mr Lowry was "pulling strings".
Mr Boyle said it was an opinion. "It is not based on evidence or fact," Mr O'Hanlon said. Mr Boyle said he was not going to discuss the basis of his lawsuit.
At the end of the day's proceedings, Mr Justice Moriarty referred to issues to do with tribunal barrister Jerry Healy having acted briefly in 1996 for Persona. The issue led to a heated exchange on Thursday after it was raised by Mr McGonigal.
Mr Justice Moriarty said he could see nothing to change his earlier ruling that "Mr Healy behaved utterly ethically, informed me of the involvement that he had [ with Persona] at an early and suitable stage".
"I consider it regrettable and unfortunate that, in my view, an unwarranted effort has been made to damage a respected and honourable barrister."