O'Reilly statement rejects Lowry claim

Sir Anthony O'Reilly, in his statement to the Moriarty tribunal, said he was "taken aback" when he was told what the former minister, Mr Michael Lowry, had told the tribunal.

"I totally reject Mr Lowry's assertion that I made any comment to him concerning the second GSM licence or any application by any consortium for such licence," Sir Anthony said. He did meet Mr Lowry at the weekend of a Derby in the Curragh but he believed, though he was not certain, that it was in July 1996 and not July 1995.

Sir Anthony, who introduced himself in his statement as "Anthony A. J. F. O'Reilly, of Castlemartin, Co Kildare", told the tribunal in his statement that he wished "to make it absolutely clear that I never informed Mr Lowry that I expected that 'my' consortium would be successful in relation to its application for the second GSM licence."

Sir Anthony said he believed his first meeting with Mr Lowry was at the opening of the Arcon Mine in Galmoy, Co Kilkenny, on September 15th, 1995.

He said that if the meeting at the Curragh had taken place in July 1995 it would have predated the bid from Irish Cellular Telephones for the GSM licence. The bid was submitted on August 4th, 1995.

Sir Anthony said he did not make any demands during the conversation at the Curragh, but probably discussed the issue of unlicensed TV deflectors. This would indicate that the meeting took place in 1996 and not 1995, he said.

By late June 1996 he was concerned at the failure by the State to do anything about shutting down unlicensed TV deflector systems. The delay which then existed in relation to the government making a decision concerning Carrigaline Community Television was causing serious damage to legitimate MMDS (television signal retransmission) operators.

A year earlier the issue of Carrigaline had been before the courts and, Sir Anthony said, he would have been well aware that the State was prevented from restraining the Carrigaline operation at that point. For that reason, he said, it was highly unlikely he would have pressed the issue in 1995.

Sir Anthony said the meeting in the Curragh was in his executive box where he was entertaining numerous guests. "He [MR LOWRY)]arrived into the box with a friend, Geraldine Mahon. As far as I was concerned he was quite welcome."

He said the minister stayed for approximately 30 minutes and he spoke to Mr Lowry and Ms Mahon for approximately five minutes.

Sir Anthony said he never had any discussions with Mr Lowry about the Irish Cellular Telephones bid for the second GSM licence. He believed Mr Lowry was misrepresenting him when he referred to Sir Anthony's comments about his commitment to Ireland and his investment here.

Sir Anthony said he probably complained about the State's failure to take action against pirate television broadcast operators "and in that context possibly did emphasise my commitment to Ireland".

He said Independent Newspapers had, with its equity partners, invested approximately £75 million (€95.25 million) in the MMDS business. The business operated on foot of exclusive licences granted by government. However, illegal TV broadcast operators were being allowed by the State to continue operating.

Sir Anthony appended a number of documents to his statement to illustrate the extent of the concern which existed in mid 1996 regarding the illegal operators.

He said he believed his first meeting with Mr Lowry was at the opening of the Arcon mine in Galmoy, Co Kilkenny, on September 15th, 1995.

"As I recall, after the official opening ceremony I was proceeding with a number of guests (including Mr Lowry whose constituency is proximate to the mine) towards the refreshment tent. Mr Lowry made a comment to me along the lines of "Your fellas didn't do too well today". I told him that I did not understand what he was saying."

"Mr Lowry explained to me that the 'your fellas' he was referring to were in fact the AT&T representatives who had earlier that day make a presentation to the departmental panel in charge of selecting the successful [second GSM licence] applicant."

AT&T was part of the Irish Cellular Telephones consortium. Sir Anthony said in his statement that he was in fact unaware that the consortium was making a presentation that morning.

"Further discussion with him [MR LOWRY)]about the matter was somewhat brief to say the least; my personal awareness of Princes Holdings Ltd's involvement in the application was very limited indeed."

Sir Anthony concluded his statement by saying: "I am very surprised that Mr Lowry is making unfounded allegations against me and can only suspect that he is doing so in order to cause me as much damage as possible.

"The needless controversy which a public ventilation of these unfounded allegations would generate would undoubtedly cause damage to me irrespective of any vociferous public rebuttal."