MORIARTY TRIBUNAL: People who knew their way around Brussels could get access to almost any document produced by the European Commission, a senior civil servant told the Moriarty Tribunal yesterday.
Mr Martin Brennan, the civil servant who chaired the committee which selected the winner of the competition for the State's second mobile phone licence, was able to get a copy of a letter from an EU commissioner to an Italian minister within 10 days of the "confidential" letter being issued.
Mr Brennan said he believed he got the letter from an official in Brussels.
He said he thought the fact was of interest given the reference in the tribunal's opening statement to Esat Digifone getting a copy of a confidential letter from the Commission to the then minister for transport, energy and communications, Mr Michael Lowry, in 1995. The letters to Mr Lowry and the Italian minister were both written by the then commissioner for competition, Mr Karel Van Miert.
Mr Brennan, resuming evidence after the Christmas break, said he was at a meeting in January 1995 where an Italian colleague told him of a letter from the commission to the Italian government in relation to introducing competition into the Italian mobile phone sector. He believed he subsequently sourced a copy of the letter from the commission and it ended up in the department's files.
"I worked in Brussels for 3½ years and I knew my way around," Mr Brennan said. He said he was probably given a copy of the letter in an attempt to increase pressure on the Irish government to introduce competition. He said the Irish Business Bureau in Brussels often got information through informal channels before the Irish civil service got it officially.
Mr Jerry Healy SC, for the tribunal, said that what had been mentioned in the opening statement was a case of a party, who was not in either the commission or the civil service, getting access to a confidential document concerned with a competition that party was going to compete in.
Mr Brennan said he was simply drawing attention to the ease with which documents could be had from the Commission. "People who know the system can get access to almost anything in Brussels," he added.
Mr Healy said the competition directorate of the commission had told the tribunal it had issued a statement to the media in relation to the opening statement prior to dealing with the tribunal because it was so concerned about its reputation for good administration.
The tribunal also heard that in 1994, when preparations were under way for the licence competition and the introduction of competition, Telecom Éireann was anxious to slow the process as it was considered that it was to the advantage of its subsidiary, Eircell, to get a head start on any competitor.
Mr Brennan said the department had representations from the semi-state that Eircell should not be charged any fee but that the new competitor should be charged as high a fee as possible for entering the Irish mobile phone market. He said the general view in 1994 was that the mobile phone business would be a highly profitable one.
Mr Brennan resumes giving evidence today.
