There was no obvious way former Fine Gael minister Mr Michael Lowry could have changed the result of the bidding process for the second mobile phone licence, the Moriarty tribunal heard today.
Counsel for Mr Denis O'Brien, Mr Eoin McGonigal SC, this morning told the tribunal that in his respectful submission, the tribunal could find no obvious way that the-then minister for Transport, Energy and Communications, Mr Lowry, could have changed the result of the bidding process for the second GSM licence and that there was no obvious way of how he could have changed the result.
The tribunal is examining the process of how Ireland's second mobile phone licence was awarded to Mr Denis O'Brien's Esat Digifone in 1996.
Mr McGonigal said the process had the right and correct result and that an Irish entrepreneur (Mr O'Brien) had teamed up with a leading IT company, Telenor, and "wiped the floor with the corporate world" to win the licence. "It was a very Irish way to do it," he added.
He also said the civil servants from the Department of Communications had steadfastly served the nation and that if there were any flaws at all, they were not with the minister (Mr Lowry), but with the process.
Mr McGonigal said the tribunal must not put itself in the place of the assessors of the licence to see if it (the tribunal) could come up with a different result.
He added there was a danger in the tribunal trying to asses the assessors and that was not in the tribunal's terms of reference.