Sir, I refer to the letter (December 5th) from Mr Shay Corcoran, in which he refers to mobile telephony licensing. Apart from those who examined and compared the applications for the second mobile telephony licence in detail, who else could possibly be qualified to describe an application as being the "least prepared"? What is the authority for this statement?
I am also at a loss to understand how any applicant or application can accurately be described as a rank outsider. I am aware, of course, that there was media speculation at the time as to the relative ranking of applications, but such speculation was no better informed than Mr Corcoran appears to be.
Both the Minister and the department gave detailed explanations as to how the selection was made. The selection criteria themselves, and their relative priority order, have been published several times and were available to all applicants in advance. The reality is that the best application won the licence.
References to the Minister's favoured applicant are particularly inappropriate, since the competition and the evaluation of proposals were conducted by an interdepartmental team aided by experienced international consultants. The clear-cut result of the competition recommended by this team was approved by the Minister and the Government. - Yours, etc.,
Press adviser, Office of the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications, Dublin 2.