The former minister for transport, energy and communications, Mr Michael Lowry, showed no particular emotion when told a result had been arrived at for the 1995 mobile phone licence competition.
The then secretary general of the department, Mr John Loughrey, said Mr Lowry was not a man to show a great range of expression in terms of reactions.
"The range of his expression is admirably limited," he told Mr John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal.
Mr Loughrey said he was told the result when he met Mr Martin Brennan, the civil servant who chaired the team which selected the winning bid, on October 25th, 1995. He drew up a short note and went to brief the minister.
He said that after this meeting he drew up a second note because he felt that his advice to Mr Lowry to get immediate political clearance for the result might have needed to be re-enforced.
In the note he suggested that immediate political clearance for the result should be sought in order to prevent any attempt to "hijack" the outcome.
Asked about this, Mr Loughrey said he was aware that many of those involved in putting in bids had put enormous effort into them.
He said Esat Digifone's bid had cost up to £1.6 million, and he believed others put "considerably more" money into their bids. Furthermore, senior executives from very large telecommunications companies had put their "heart and soul" into a process when they could have directed these management resources elsewhere.
It was clear that the final decision in relation to the licence was a political one to be taken by the Government, and interest groups were within their rights to lobby.
He said it might have also been in the back of his mind that the employees in Telecom Éireann might not have viewed Mr Denis O'Brien and Esat Digifone as the "perfect prototype".
He felt that immediately seeking political clearance was the route to follow. He advised Mr Lowry in his note that a press conference could be arranged at short notice once political clearance had been given for the announcement.
Asked about the fact that the final report of the assessment team had not yet arrived in the department at the time, Mr Loughrey said the report could not change the outcome of the competition.
He said Mr Lowry had the right to know the result straight away.
