Lowry welcomes consortium decision

North Tipperary TD Michael Lowry has welcomed the decision by a consortium which bid for the controversial second mobile phone licence granted by the State to drop its legal action challenging the award of the licence in 1996.

Comcast applied to the High Court to withdraw proceedings against the State, businessman Denis O'Brien, his company Esat Digifone, which won the licence, and Deputy Lowry, who was Minister for Communications in the Government which awarded the licence.

In a statement Mr O'Brien and Mr Lowry welcomed the development.

Comcast made a contribution towards the legal costs of Mr O'Brien and paid Mr Lowry's costs in full.

“After extensive discovery, prolonged investigation, intense scrutiny with a lengthy and costly legal process my stated position has been validated,” Mr Lowry stated.

“From the outset I have consistently rejected the Moriarty Tribunal findings. The report is deeply flawed and manifestly unfair to me and a host of professional civil servants. The Tribunal opinions are not substantiated by facts. The assessment and award process was fair, impartial, lawful, and the withdrawal by Comcast international is evidence of this fact.

“It is a justification of my repeatedly stated position that there was no wrongdoing in relation to the award of the mobile telephone license in 1996,” said the poll-topping TD.

In its findings on the awarding of the second mobile phone licence, the Moriarty Tribunal  found it was “beyond doubt” that Deputy Lowry imparted substantive information to Denis O'Brien which was “of significant value and assistance to him in securing” the licence for Esat.

It concluded that over a three-year period Michael Lowry received payments from Denis O'Brien through a series of “clandestine” property deals involving third parties.

These findings have always been disputed by both Mr Lowry and Mr O'Brien.

statement

In a statement, Mr O'Brien repeated his rejection of the Tribunal's findings.

He said “not a single person who had any actual involvement in the awarding of the second mobile phone licence gave any evidence of any wrongdoing in that process.

“The legal advice given to me was that there was no possibility whatsoever of having the Moriarty Tribunal’s non-binding opinions overturned by the Irish Courts because the Tribunal was deemed to exist outside of the Administration of Justice in Ireland,” he said.

Mr Lowry said a remaining legal challenge by Persona will continue to be defended with the same vigour and certainty.

The consortium originally included US telecoms group Comcast and businessman Declan Ganley.

Mr Lowry said evidence to the Tribunal by key witnesses was ignored including that of an independent consultant who stated clearly and unambiguously, under Oath, “that there was no interference or impropriety by me as the then Minister in the conduct of the licence process.”

Mr Lowry added: “In this case taken against me personally by Comcast I have successfully delivered a full defence and proof of no impropriety.

“I also successfully challenged Moriarty’s cost rulings which was overturned by the Court of Appeal.”