Telecoms businessman Denis O’Brien received almost €6 million from the Moriarty tribunal in legal costs arising from its inquiries into the awarding of State mobile telephone licences and his financial relationship with Independent TD Michael Lowry.
Two separate sources have confirmed that the State Claims Agency paid €5.8 million to Mr O’Brien in full and final settlement of his legal costs. This followed an order made by the tribunal relating to costs in 2021.
The Tribunal of Inquiry into certain Payments to Politicians and Related Matters, more commonly known as the Moriarty tribunal, was chaired by Mr Justice Michael Moriarty. It was established in 1997 and examined the source of, and circumstances around, payments made to former taoiseach Charles J Haughey and, separately, to Mr Lowry, who had been a Fine Gael TD.
Mr Lowry was also the minister for communications at the time of the process in 1995 which decided which company would be awarded the State’s second mobile phone licence.
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Mr O’Brien’s company Esat Digifone was the successful bidder.
Mr O’Brien himself gave evidence for nine days in November 2003. The final report of the tribunal, relating to Mr O’Brien and to Mr Lowry, was published eight years later, in 2011.
The final report found that Mr Lowry “secured the winning” of the 1995 mobile licence for O’Brien and that the Tipperary TD imparted substantive information to Mr O’Brien which was “of significant value and assistance to him in securing the licence”.
It further said that Mr Lowry had played a role in the process that was “insidious”.
The tribunal report said that payments of IR £447,000 (€567,000) had been made by Mr O’Brien to Mr Lowry and that he had also facilitated a loan to the TD of IR£420,000 (€533,000).
Both Mr O’Brien and Mr Lowry rejected those findings.
Mr O’Brien denied he had ever made a payment to Mr Lowry.
Mr Lowry has also been paid costs arising out of the tribunal. He said last year that a dispute over costs amounting to €2,869,338 was resolved.
The Court of Appeal had in 2018 granted his appeal against a 2013 decision of the tribunal to award him only one-third of his costs. The court directed the tribunal to reconsider what costs should be paid to him.
The Irish Times reported earlier this month that the overall costs of the Moriarty tribunal now stand at €83 million, while the State has paid out a total of €600 million to date for 27 tribunals, inquiries and commissions of investigation established since the late 1990s.
In March 2011, following the publication of the second report of the Moriarty tribunal, the Dáil chamber passed the following motion without a vote: “The Dáil believes the conduct of Michael Lowry set out in the tribunal report was completely unacceptable, and calls on Deputy Lowry to resign voluntarily his membership of Dáil Éireann.”
Mr Lowry did not resign and last year, he topped the poll in Tipperary North for the seventh general election in a row.
