Ó hUIGINN RESPONSE: FORMER SECRETARY general at the Department of the Taoiseach Pádraig Ó hUiginn has criticised the Moriarty tribunal, claiming its treatment of evidence provided by civil servants was "grossly unjust".
Mr Ó hUiginn, a confidante of the late Charles Haughey, declared a personal interest in the tribunal because he was a director of Esat Telecom and a beneficiary of the sale of Esat Telecom to BT.
“As a former senior civil servant, I have a fundamental problem with the Moriarty tribunal report,” he said. “The licence was in effect awarded by a team of distinguished civil servants, assisted by international consultants of experience and impeccable reputation in such matters.
“Their sworn testimony was that they came under no pressure or influence from the minister to favour Esat Digifone. For the tribunal to ignore this critical and overwhelming testimony is inexplicable, as well as being grossly unjust to the civil servants involved.”
In a statement released yesterday, Mr Ó hUiginn, now retired, delivered strongly worded criticisms of the way the tribunal had carried out its investigations.
Mr Ó hUiginn claimed the tribunal’s report, released on Tuesday, raised a serious constitutional issue about tribunals in general, “in that it attacks the good name of those being inquired into – a good name which is protected by the Constitution – by findings which are not subject to the usual legal protection of being made in public and subject to cross-examination”.
He added: “It is not good enough in a democratic society that we conduct such serious matters affecting the constitutional rights of citizens in this unconstitutional way . . . Let justice be done but let it be done in open court so that evidence can be tested and justified.”
The report stated that Mr Ó hUiginn described himself in evidence as part of a small group that advised Denis O’Brien from time to time. In February 1994, he was invited by Mr O’Brien to become a director of Esat Telecom.
Due to his position as chairman of Bord Fáilte, he had tickets to the All-Ireland football final in September 1995, and invited Mr O’Brien to accompany him. There Mr O’Brien met Mr Lowry and arranged to meet him again after the match, according to the tribunal report.
The report said those meetings took place on September 17th, 1995, after applications for the GSM licence had been submitted on foot of a revised deadline of August 4th, and some days after oral presentations had been made by applicants.
