FORMER TAOISEACH John Bruton has said there is no proof that the outcome of the competition for the second mobile phone licence was influenced in any way by the actions of Michael Lowry.
Mr Bruton said it was “very deplorable” that Mr Lowry, who was minister for communications at the time the licence was awarded, had contact with people involved in the bidding process.
“That was entirely wrong on his part,” Mr Bruton told RTÉ Radio yesterday. He said he didn’t know about the financial payments Mr Lowry received later – which the Moriarty tribunal report said came from Denis O’Brien – “but they looked to me that they should never have occurred”.
These payments were all made after Mr Lowry was expelled from Fine Gael, he said. Mr Bruton was taoiseach at the time of the licence award but the report found Mr Lowry kept him and other cabinet colleagues in the dark about the process.
“As to whether there is proof that the result of the competition was influenced in any way by what Michael Lowry did, that’s not proven,” Mr Bruton continued. The civil servants and the international consultant involved in the process had not said they were forced to change their conclusions, he said.
Meanwhile, over two weeks after the publication of the report, it is still not possible to get a printed copy. The Government Publications Office said it would not be selling the report for another four to five weeks while the tribunal said copies would be ready in three to four weeks.
In other remarks, Mr Bruton said Ireland needed to stop being inward-focused and start being more outward-focused and thinking about other people’s problems and how to solve them.
He said it was important to tap into the patriotism of Irish people. “This is as big a challenge to Irish independence as the Act of Union. That took away our legislative independence and now we have lost our economic independence.”