TELECOMS TYCOON Denis O’Brien marked 13 years of the Moriarty tribunal yesterday by going to Dublin Castle, where the tribunal sits, with a birthday cake.
The cake was inscribed “Moriarty tribunal, 13th birthday, €200 million cost”. Mr O’Brien said he was bringing it to Dublin Castle to highlight the fact that members of the tribunal’s legal team had said when claiming their fees they worked weekends and bank holidays. There was no reply when he knocked on the tribunal door.
Nobody from the tribunal was available to comment to The Irish Times. A security man said the chairman of the tribunal, Mr Justice Moriarty had been there yesterday morning with another person associated with the tribunal whom he did not know.
“I’ve been in the tribunal for nine and half years, and they’ve been looking at the phone licence for 10 years,” Mr O’Brien said.
The tribunal has been examining the awarding of the second mobile phone licence to Mr O’Brien’s company, Esat Digifone, in 1996.