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MORIARTY TRIBUNAL: A member of the team that selected the 1995 mobile phone licence competition winner thought the then minister, Mr Michael Lowry, might have applied pressure to wrap up the process to bring about a particular result.

Mr Sean MacMahon said he was "troubled" at the time by the pressure that was coming down from Mr Lowry to finish the process. He said he would have preferred if no such pressure had been created. However, he said he decided to dismiss the idea that Mr Lowry was trying to bring about a particular result and he had no evidence that the pressure had distorted the result. Mr MacMahon was giving evidence about events on October 23rd, 1995, two days before Mr Lowry announced that Esat Digifone had won the competition. He said he "may" have mentioned his concern to the then secretary general of the Dept of Transport, Energy and Communications, Mr John Loughrey, during a meeting on October 23rd at which he pressed for more time for the assessment team to complete its work.