O'Brien 'was told by Lowry' to involve Desmond in bid

The Moriarty tribunal heard a claim that Mr Denis O'Brien was told by Mr Michael Lowry to get Mr Dermot Desmond's IIU Ltd involved in the Esat Digifone bid for the State's second mobile phone licence.

Mr Per Simonsen, an executive with Digifone shareholder Telenor, said he was told by Mr O'Brien in late September 1995 that Mr O'Brien had met Mr Lowry in a pub and that the minister had suggested that IIU should be involved in the Digifone consortium.

Mr Lowry has said he never discussed the matter with Mr O'Brien. Mr O'Brien has said he has no recollection of meeting Mr Simonsen in late September 1995 and that there is no such entry in his diary. He said that when he met Mr Lowry in the pub, Hartigan's of Leeson Street, they discussed matters to do with Esat Telecom and Telecom Eireann.

Mr John Coughlan SC, counsel for the tribunal, continuing his opening statement, said Mr Lowry and Mr O'Brien met in the pub following the All Ireland Football Final on September 15th, 1995. Mr O'Brien's diary for that date shows entries for the All Ireland at 3.30 p.m., Mr Dermot Desmond at 6 p.m. and Mr Lowry at 6.45 at "Harto's".

Mr O'Brien has said the diary entries were made after the events and at the same time.

Mr Lowry has told the tribunal he met Mr O'Brien in a hospitality room during or after the football match and that Mr O'Brien had asked him where he would be later. Mr Lowry said "Hourican's" and Mr O'Brien said he would see him there.

Mr O'Brien said he believed the meeting was the only time he met Mr Lowry between that date and the winning of the mobile phone licence by Digifone on October 25th, 1995. He may have met Mr Lowry at two Fine Gael fund-raising functions during October but he was not sure.

Mr O'Brien said Hourican's pub was full so he went to Hartigan's with Mr Lowry, who was already in Hourican's when Mr O'Brien arrived. In the pub the two men discussed the match and matters to do with fixed-line telephony and Esat Telecom. He said he did not believe that other matters were discussed.

He thought the meeting lasted for appoximately 30 minutes.

Mr Arve Johannsen, another Telenor executive, said he was told by Mr Simonsen in September 1995 that he, Mr Simonsen, had been told by Mr O'Brien that Mr Lowry had said during the meeting that the involvement of IIU in the Digifone bid would be "helpful". Mr Johannsen said he attached no importance to the comment.

He said he mentioned the matter at a meeting in the IIU offices more than a year later, on October 23rd, 1996. He asked if anyone there had heard the story of the meeting in the public house. He said Mr John Callaghan had said he had heard of a meeting on a plane. He formed the impression that no one else had heard of the alleged meeting and that it was not taken seriously.

Mr Coughlan said Mr Desmond had told the tribunal that he attended the All Ireland on September 15th, 1995, but did not recall meeting Mr O'Brien on that day.

He also said he had no knowledge direct or indirect of the meeting Mr Lowry had with Mr O'Brien on that day.

He had not heard of the meeting until told of it by the tribunal. Mr Desmond also said he was out of the country by 8 p.m. on Sunday September 15th, and was away for the following week.

Mr Leslie Buckley has told the tribunal he could recall being in a car with Mr O'Brien on September 18th, 1995, and being told of the meeting with Mr Lowry.

He said Mr O'Brien told him they had discussed the Esat Telecom fixed-line business, which was Mr Buckley's area of responsibility.

Mr Coughlan said the tribunal had not yet heard from Mr O'Brien in relation to the meeting with Mr Desmond on September 15th indicated in Mr O'Brien's diary. A note by solicitor Mr Owen O'Connell of William Fry solicitors, from a meeting with Mr Buckley and Mr O'Brien on September 18th, 1995, contained the sentence: "DD going ahead with financing transaction".

The note also said that Digifone needed an underwriting letter for the department because the finances of the consortium's bid were seen as a weakness. In 1996 Mr Johannsen wrote a memo in which he said that a year earlier Mr O'Brien said that "based on information from very important sources", he knew that Digifone needed to strengthen the Irish profile of its bid.