Official denies Lowry 'negative' to group

Moriarty tribunal: A civil servant who was part of the team which selected the winner of the State's second mobile phone licence rejected the suggestion that the minister, Mr Michael Lowry, had suggested a particular view on one candidate.

Mr John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, said it was well known in the Civil Service that ministers or taoisigh had only to show a polite interest to indicate what their line of thinking might be. He asked Mr Fintan Towey if that was not a fair comment.

Mr Towey said: "Possibly."

Mr Coughlan asked was that not what had happened in relation to a conversation Mr Towey had with Mr Lowry during the 1995 competition. Mr Coughlan, referring to the Persona consortium, said Mr Lowry had indicated that, at least, he was not neutral in relation to one consortium.

Mr Towey said he did not perceive from the conversation that Mr Lowry was "negative" in relation to Persona.

The tribunal heard that Mr Towey and the team chairman, Mr Martin Brennan, visited Copenhagen in late September 1995 and, with Danish consultants, worked out a final ranking of the applications.

Soon after their return to Dublin, Mr Brennan informed Mr Lowry of the ranking of the top two consortia, Esat Digifone was first and Persona second.

Mr Coughlan said everything that occurred after the conversation between Mr Brennan and Mr Lowry was to give effect to what had occurred in Copenhagen, which Mr Lowry was satisfied with and which the rest of the assessment team had no role in.

Mr Towey said he did not accept this interpretation. He did not accept that from that point on the result was "set in stone".

Mr Coughlan said that when Mr Brennan told the team about his conversation with the minister, this was meant as "a shot across the bows" of the team.

Mr Towey said he believed the minister was entitled to information but was not entitled to convey that information to interested parties. Mr Lowry, to his knowledge, only expressed a limited interest in the competition.

Mr Coughlan said that from the moment Mr Lowry was told the ranking of the top two, he was pressing to close down the process. A note of a meeting dated October 3rd, 1995, recorded some civil servants being told by Mr Brennan that the minister wanted the process accelerated.

The first meeting of the team after the Copenhagen trip was on October 9th, 1995. Mr Coughlan said Mr Brennan, who told the meeting that Mr Lowry had been informed of the ranking of the top two, was presenting the team with a fait accompli and "trying to drive it through". He was driving it through as it was the result that the minister desired.

Mr Towey did not agree. He believed Mr Lowry would have been equally happy with Persona getting the licence.