The Moriarty Tribunal results...

DrumSteve

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0322/moriarty.html

The Moriarty Tribunal, which was investigating payments to politicians, has published its report online.

Full report Part 1 | 2

Moriarty had been examining possible links between Denis O'Brien and former Fine Gael politician Michael Lowry, who was Communications Minister when a mobile phone licence was granted to Esat Digifone in 1996.

Michael Lowry was found to have displayed 'an appreciable interest' in the licence process and had 'irregular interactions with interested parties at its most sensitive stages'.

The report states that it is 'beyond doubt' that Michael Lowry imparted substantive information to Denis O'Brien which was 'of significant value and assistance to him in securing the licence'.

The 'most pervasive and abusive instance' of Michael Lowry's influence on the awarding of the mobile phone licence to Esat Digifone was his action in withdrawing time from the Project Group, when it had requested an extension to its work because it was not convinced that Esat Digifone should be nominated as the winner.

The Group had asked for extra time because they were confused about the weightings applied and how the result had emerged, and wanted an opportunity to revisit and review the evaluation.

The report makes reference to Mr O'Brien's companies contributing £22,140 in donations to Fine Gael between 1995 and 1996.

The 'conspicuous support' of Fine Gael fundraising events in early 1995 'succeeded' in raising the his company profile to an appreciable degree which was 'not remotely matched' by members of other bidding consortiums.

'Insidious and pervasive influence'

The report also found that Mr Lowry proceeded to bypass consideration by his Cabinet colleagues and thereby not only influenced, but delivered the result that Esat Digifone had won the evaluation process which ultimately led to the licensing award.

The report describes these matters as elements of Michael Lowry's 'insidious and pervasive influence' on the process.

The Moriarty Tribunal refers to contact between Michael Lowry and Denis O'Brien during 1995 and ahead of the awarding of a GSM licence as 'inadvisable and possibly indiscreet' on Mr Lowry's part.

They spoke about the project at a Fine Gael function in March 1995.

However the tribunal says it 'recognised the information conveyed was hardly confidential'.

Set up in 1997, the Tribunal held public sittings over 350 days until June 2007, when it was thought the taking of evidence in public had come to an end.

The Tribunal issued confidential preliminary findings relating to its second report to interested parties in November 2008, but then held subsequent hearings where new evidence was heard that called into question some of the findings.

The tribunal questioned its final witness, mobile phone expert Michael Andersen, last year.

Not telling us anything we didn't know already I guess but its a lenghty read nonetheless...

What are its implications for Lowry now? Will he have to step down? (of course he won't...)

mike65

Writs will be flying....damning stuff. Listening to extracts on Pat kennys prog right now

Sir Oxman

I'll cut my left ball off if Lowry or O'Brien are brought to book over any of this.
This is Ireland, where the likes of these two get to do very wrong things and are not accountable.

100-150million euro this cost and most of that was due to both not being at all open about a lot of what happened (couching my words carefully), only for Matt Cooper in 2001...

PS O'Brien's Newstalk has barely mentioned this since 12 noon...half an hour ago, must be waiting on the official line

P. Breathnach

I imagine that today is a great day for the legal profession. Denis O'Brien has deep pockets, and I foresee years of legal action.

I wonder if this report had been issued before the election if the people of North Tipperary would have voted Lowry in again.

DrumSteve

P. Breathnach wrote: »

I imagine that today is a great day for the legal profession. Denis O'Brien has deep pockets, and I foresee years of legal action.

I wonder if this report had been issued before the election if the people of North Tipperary would have voted Lowry in again.

Of course they would.

Can O'Brien challenge this? It's been a long time coming so could he not have challenged the findings during the tribunal itself?

Sir Oxman

P. Breathnach wrote: »

I imagine that today is a great day for the legal profession. Denis O'Brien has deep pockets, and I foresee years of legal action.

I wonder if this report had been issued before the election if the people of North Tipperary would have voted Lowry in again.

And I'm sure the losing bidders have deep pockets too...another Ireland Inc billion euro payout!

the groutch

tribunals are the scourge of the FF years, politicians helping fill the pockets of their barrister buddies

if there was any true justice in the world, they would do away with all these tribunals, and have the Gardai do the job they paid to and bring people like this to justice the good old-fashioned way

HellFireClub

The real losers here are the Irish people, who are footing a bill for hundreds of millions of Euro I imagine in legal costs, for this tribunal to prove that a cirrupt politician, was indeed corrupt. This tribunal was set up in 1997, it's now 2011, some 14 years later, that's 14 years of legal costs. The costs are estimated at somewhere between 100-150 million. How many schools, hospitals and Garda stations would that amount of money build???

Rabidlamb

Ah, if this was China....... but it's not...... but if it was :D:D

Free the Lowry one I say, sure didn't Inda do a "special" deal with him already.
It's Vegas baby.

jimmycrackcorm

Lowry should be impeached.

the groutch

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

Lowry should be impeached imprisoned.

FYP

20Cent

Why is this covered in a Tribunal and not a court room anyway?
Another example of the two tier legal system.
Good that its finally finished but doubt anything will come of it.

Lapin

Has a date been fixed yet ?

Sir Oxman

Ben Dunne is going ballistic on Laaave-laaahn!
He wants a case brought by the DPP against himself as he's not corrupt and corrupt people should be put behind bars.

phantom_lord

So...what are the implications for Lowry after all that?

whippet

I wonder if there is any scope by the loosing bidder to seek compensation from the irish state ... if so ... the costs could be in the billions.

But then again topping the poll for two decades shows how much we love a rogue.

dlofnep

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0322/moriartyfinegael.html

FG criticised for not disclosing $50k donation

The report from the Moriarty Tribunal has criticised the Fine Gael party for not revealing the clandestine nature of a $50,000 donation made by Denis O'Brien after his company won Ireland's second mobile phone licence competition.
The Tribunal said payment was made with false documentation and was designed to be concealed.

It found Mr O'Brien instigated the payment of $50,000 to Fine Gael two months after his company ESAT Digifone won the GSM licence.

Fine Gael in the pockets of the big businessmen. What's new. :rolleyes:

dvpower

phantom_lord wrote: »

So...what are the implications for Lowry after all that?

He will again top the poll in the next election.

Nodin

phantom_lord wrote: »

So...what are the implications for Lowry after all that?

Legally? None, afaik.

whippet

It's different because its FG ... taking hidden payments from Big Business .. couldn't be anything dodgy about that .. sure they are not FF and never had a tent at the galway races.

It was taken very lightly that FG were just FF with a different colour before the election .. if FG were in power over the last 14 years during the boom you can be sure they would have gotten in to the same mire as FF ......

Newaglish

dlofnep wrote: »

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0322/moriartyfinegael.html



Fine Gael in the pockets of the big businessmen. What's new. :rolleyes:

Sorry if I'm misreading the report, but didn't John Bruton (FG Taoiseach at the time) refuse the payment initially? Then some time later it was hidden as a private donation and when FG found out about it, they returned the money?

Edit: Also, unlike the numerous corrupt people in FF, FG actually expelled Michael Lowry from the party.

Hermy

gambiaman wrote: »

...only for Matt Cooper in 2001...

Hi gambiaman,

I wonder could you elaborate on this bit for me?
What did Matt Cooper do in 2001?

JonathanAnon

whippet wrote: »

I wonder if there is any scope by the loosing bidder to seek compensation from the irish state ... if so ... the costs could be in the billions.

Was just gonna make this point.. And I would agree Persona and the other groups suing for compensation, as they must have wasted a fortune on their bids, when the deck was stacked against them ....

But what I think is really sad is that it's bad enough that the decent Irish people have already had to pay for the mistakes of our bankers, and pay for the cowardly Department Of Finance, Central Bank, Regulation etc etc.. none of these highly paid (and supposedly highly skilled) people had the courage to make the right decisions to help save the economy..

But now the Irish taxpayer is expected to pay for compensation for the corruption of the elite of our society, without any retribution for those whose corrupt actions lead to the judge's finding... it really is sickening..

20Cent

Good call by Joe Higgins
If a public auction of a state asset was usurped by corruption then this warrents a criminal case.

1722 Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins said the report had uncovered shocking political and corporation corruption.
Denis O'Brien had sold the mobile phone licence for a profit of IR£250m - Deputy Higgins asked if the Criminal Assets Bureau would seek to recover that money for the State.

Shea O'Meara

whippet wrote: »

It's different because its FG ... taking hidden payments from Big Business .. couldn't be anything dodgy about that .. sure they are not FF and never had a tent at the galway races.

It was taken very lightly that FG were just FF with a different colour before the election .. if FG were in power over the last 14 years during the boom you can be sure they would have gotten in to the same mire as FF ......

We had decades of FFail, 'Sure the others are no better!'. Let's turn a page and hold politicians accountable rather than posting, 'See, sure what did I tell ya?'.

Pete_Cavan

Did any one else see O'Brien's freudian slip on the 6.01 news? "I did make payments to Michael, eh..."

whippet

Shea O'Meara wrote: »

We had decades of FFail, 'Sure the others are no better!'. Let's turn a page and hold politicians accountable rather than posting, 'See, sure what did I tell ya?'.

no getting away from the reality ... this election was fought on the mantra of anyone but FF ....

The Waltzing Consumer

dlofnep wrote: »

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0322/moriartyfinegael.html



Fine Gael in the pockets of the big businessmen. What's new. :rolleyes:

Another poster pointed this out but you did not respond to them. Does that article you reference not say that the FG leader rejected the donation once they found out where it came from? And did FG not expel Lowry?

So how are FG in the pockets of big businessmen?

StupidLikeAFox

dlofnep wrote: »

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0322/moriartyfinegael.html



Fine Gael in the pockets of the big businessmen. What's new. :rolleyes:

From the same article:
Then Fine Gael leader John Bruton ordered that the cheque be returned to Telenor who refused to accept it and the Tribunal found that it finally came to rest somewhere in ESAT Digifone.

So no, not really

EDIT: Beaten to it!

R P McMurphy

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Was just gonna make this point.. And I would agree Persona and the other groups suing for compensation, as they must have wasted a fortune on their bids, when the deck was stacked against them ....

But what I think is really sad is that it's bad enough that the decent Irish people have already had to pay for the mistakes of our bankers, and pay for the cowardly Department Of Finance, Central Bank, Regulation etc etc.. none of these highly paid (and supposedly highly skilled) people had the courage to make the right decisions to help save the economy..

But now the Irish taxpayer is expected to pay for compensation for the corruption of the elite of our society, without any retribution for those whose corrupt actions lead to the judge's finding... it really is sickening..

The other aspect of this is serious damage to reputation. Could influence FDI therefore it needs to be resolved

R P McMurphy

The Waltzing Consumer wrote: »

Another poster pointed this out but you did not respond to them. Does that article you reference not say that the FG leader rejected the donation once they found out where it came from? And did FG not expel Lowry?

So how are FG in the pockets of big businessmen?

There is still an issue of non-disclosure and why this would be the case. Hope it is handle correctly

Liam Byrne

R P McMurphy wrote: »

There is still an issue of non-disclosure and why this would be the case. Hope it is handle correctly

If they rejected the donation, what was there to disclose ?

R P McMurphy

Disclosure to the tribunal - it is an issue of concealment

Sir Oxman

Hermy wrote: »

Hi gambiaman,

I wonder could you elaborate on this bit for me?
What did Matt Cooper do in 2001?

Cooper wrote an article in March 2001 in the Tribune exposing the covert $50k donation to FG via Esat which led to O'Briens' accounts being subject to scrutiny

Sir Oxman

20Cent wrote: »

Good call by Joe Higgins
If a public auction of a state asset was usurped by corruption then this warrents a criminal case.

1722 Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins said the report had uncovered shocking political and corporation corruption.
Denis O'Brien had sold the mobile phone licence for a profit of IR£250m - Deputy Higgins asked if the Criminal Assets Bureau would seek to recover that money for the State.

Aye, the 'winning' of that contract set O Brien on a road to billionaire staus.

ilovesleep

I need a history lesson on this please folks. Tried to get something out of afterhours but didn't get far. What happened? Start from the start please. Thanks

StupidLikeAFox

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moriarty_Tribunal

Have fun!

R P McMurphy

Liam Byrne wrote: »

If they rejected the donation, what was there to disclose ?

A bit more detail on the issue- that sort of attitude will not stand anymore

The ESAT Telenor $50,000 donation to Fine Gael:
A $50,000 donation made through Telenor was made on behalf of ESAT Digiphone to Fine Gael.

The Tribunal says it was 'regrettable' that no disclosure whatsoever was made to a public tribunal of enquiry concerning the donation 'notwithstanding a substantial degree of knowledge concerning the clandestine circumstances of the payment' it says this observation applies to Fine Gael who both in government and in opposition was instrumental in establishing the Tribunal.
The Tribunal says the failure of those concerned in not referring it to the tribunal was to have regard to the significance of Mr Lowry's position who, at the time of the donation (December 1995), was chairman of the trustees of Fine Gael and an account holder on behalf of the party.

'This omission betrayed a marked reluctance to engage with the Tribunal and a sensitivity surrounding the circumstances of the payment'
The Tribunal found that this payment was not one ever intended for Mr Lowry personally

BlaasForRafa

dlofnep wrote: »

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0322/moriartyfinegael.html



Fine Gael in the pockets of the big businessmen. What's new. :rolleyes:

Sinn Fein/IRA robbing banks. Whats new. :rolleyes:

BlaasForRafa

20Cent wrote: »

Good call by Joe Higgins
If a public auction of a state asset was usurped by corruption then this warrents a criminal case.

1722 Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins said the report had uncovered shocking political and corporation corruption.
Denis O'Brien had sold the mobile phone licence for a profit of IR£250m - Deputy Higgins asked if the Criminal Assets Bureau would seek to recover that money for the State.

One of the few times I'd agree with Joe. Lowry, O'Brien and Ben Dunne should be locked up in jail....and a proper jail like Mountjoy or Portlaoise not one of those soft namby-pamby jails.

Just looking at the RTE news now, Lowry was "profoundly corrupt to a breathtaking extent".

O'Brien is going on full attack against the media and the judiciary, he's beginning to sound as paranoid and looney as Gaddafi. And Ben Dunne is actually claiming that he was mentally imbalanced when all these events went down....well we know he was hepped up on goofballs...and coke when he tried to dive into a swimming pool from 14 stories up in Miami but he must think we are all mental if we are going to believe a word out of his mouth.

Mr.Micro

Cripes 15 years later and the result is what most of us knew already. The likes of Lousy and Dunne and the rest will deny any wrong doing for as long as they live, so what difference will the final report make? None IMO, only that the lawyers will get richer as various aspects of the report may be challenged by Dunne, O 'Brien and not Lousy, unless someone else pays.

bmarley

gambiaman wrote: »

Ben Dunne is going ballistic on Laaave-laaahn!
He wants a case brought by the DPP against himself as he's not corrupt and corrupt people should be put behind bars.

He has nothing to worry about, lost his memory for 10 years!

Darsad

jasus barely a week into the new Dail and the taoiseach is answering questions regarding corruption by members of his party ! Same circus different clowns.
Either Moriarty is wrong or Lowry should be pursued by the dpp either way the Irish people deserve action any other country and Lowry would be forced to stand down as a public rep !
Also why was this report not released before the GE or was it blocked somehow similar to A|hern and the Mahon report

Drumpot

It's odd that the report only came out after the election! Seems like an ff tactic that so many people gave out about. I would imagine that the abff brigade are as angry with this as they would of been if it were about a different party!

But sure we have a new kind of government. A non ff government that guarantees greater moral fibre.... Right ????

Ah. Feck politics and all party's. If fg want to make a statement of intent they will go after Lowry and the parties involved. Don't want to hear lame excuses.Political change me arse!

Mr.Micro

Darsad wrote: »

jasus barely a week into the new Dail and the taoiseach is answering questions regarding corruption by members of his party ! Same circus different clowns.
Either Moriarty is wrong or Lowry should be pursued by the dpp either way the Irish people deserve action any other country and Lowry would be forced to stand down as a public rep !

The eejits in North Tipperary would vote in a similar type no doubt. Does he have a brother like Biffo to fill his shoes.

Mr.Micro

Darsad wrote: »

jasus barely a week into the new Dail and the taoiseach is answering questions regarding corruption by members of his party ! Same circus different clowns.
Either Moriarty is wrong or Lowry should be pursued by the dpp either way the Irish people deserve action any other country and Lowry would be forced to stand down as a public rep !

The eejits in North Tipperary would vote in a similar type no doubt. Does he have a brother like Biffo has to fill his shoes?

ilovesleep

ColHol wrote: »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moriarty_Tribunal

Have fun!

Cheers for this.

timbel

As has previously been said, us taxpayers are the real losers - 150m costs for the tribunal, plus more to come from the appeals, etc.

Wonder how/if this affects Mr Quirke's project (Tipp casino/racetrack) with Lowry such a central figure in it...

Sir Oxman

Mr.Micro wrote: »

The eejits in North Tipperary would vote in a similar type no doubt. Does he have a brother like Biffo has to fill his shoes?

Hi son is a councillor - plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose

Mr.Micro

With all that has gone on with FF over the last 13 years in Government culminating with the cosy bailouts for Anglo and the rest, why should people be surprised at Lousy, Dunne and the rest. Its the rotten way business has always been done ( excuse the pun) in Ireland. If this new Government means anything it should seek to prosecute if there is enough evidence and start as it means to go on.

Sir Oxman

This new govt must draw the line - I cannot take any more of this sickening country and I'm guessing most of the rest of the country can't take much more of this sleaze while being rammed up the arse.