O'Brien annoyed at holiday interruption

The entrepreneur Mr Denis O'Brien said he was very angry about having to interrupt his holidays to return to give evidence to the Moriarty Tribunal.

Speaking to reporters outside the tribunal and after having spent about 10 minutes in the witness box, Mr O'Brien said it would be an understatement to describe him as upset.

Mr O'Brien said his counsel, Mr Eoin McGonigal SC, had expressed his views "very, very well" in his (Mr McGonigal's) comments to the tribunal.

Mr McGonigal had expressed his "outrage" at how his client was being treated. The former major shareholder in Esat Digifone said he welcomed the fact that the tribunal was going to hear evidence in public about the awarding of a mobile phone licence to Esat.

He said he did not understand why the tribunal had not held hearings in public for the past eight months.

He called on the tribunal to commence its hearings now and to clear up the matter.

"The quicker it happens the better," he said. "There is a lot of innuendo around and it needs to be cleared up very very quickly. It has gone on for too long."