A Danish consultant has told the Moriarty tribunal today he believes a meeting described in earlier evidence by senior Irish civil servants never occurred.
Prof Michael Andersen, who was a key adviser to the State’s second mobile phone licence in 1995, has contradicted evidence from senior civil servants Fintan Towey and Martin Brennan as to how the final result emerged.
In their evidence some years ago the two civil servants told of travelling to Prof Andersen’s offices in Copenhagen and discussing the submissions for the licence.
Difficulties had emerged in the planned scored quantitative assessment of the bids in a process that also included graded qualitative assessments. Mr Brennan said the grades from the qualitative assessments, which were letters, were converted into numbers. A final winner then emerged. He gave evidence of flipcharts being used during the meeting, which occured in late September 1995.
However Prof Andersen said no such meeting took place. Responding to Michael McDowell SC, for the tribunal, he said the final result emerged at an earlier meeting in Copenhagen in September, attended by a number of the civil servants involved in the process.
He said his recollection was that there was a subsequent conference call with Mr Brennan, Mr Towey and a Danish colleague of his who was also working on the process.
He said he was not happy with the suggestion to change grades to numbers as it “distorted” the qualitative assessment. However he had not objected to it.
Prof Andersen said the 1995 competition did not involve a “neck and neck” finish but rather the winning application was “a horse length ahead” of the second ranked bid.
The competition was won by Esat Digifone, the consortium founded by Denis O’Brien. Prof Andersen is continuing his evidence.
Earlier today, chairman Mr Justice Michael Moriarty said the tribunal will only use Mr McDowell, the former tánaiste and attorney general, for the examination of Prof Andersen.
After Mr Andersen’s evidence is complete Mr McDowell’s services will no longer be used by the tribunal. He will have no role in the tribunal’s deliberative process.
Mr Justice Moriarty said he had not had time to produce a reasoned argument in response to complaints yesterday that Mr McDowell was conflicted because of his activities in public life.
Lawyers for Denis O’Brien and Dermot Desmond, shareholders in Esat Digifone which won the 1995 mobile phone licence competition, said yesterday they are going to seek a judicial review of the tribunal’s engagement of the former Attorney General.
Mr Justice Moriarty said Mr McDowell was an experienced and senior barrister whose professional skills would be used when questioning Mr Andersen.
Mr Andersen, who is from Denmark, was the lead consultant to the 1995 competition and has told the tribunal the Esat submission was the best that was received and deserved to win.
He said he saw no evidence of any interference in the process. He has also said that during private dealings with the tribunal some years ago, he formed the impression that it had an anti-Esat bias.
Mr McDowell is continuing his examination of Mr Andersen.
