Why was the result of the second mobile phone licence competition announced quickly?

 

The specially constituted Cabinet Sub-Committee met on 25 October 1995 and was informed by the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications of the result of the second mobile phone licence competition; namely that Esat Digifone had emerged as the best of the six applications in the licence competition. The Cabinet Sub-Committee decided to announce the result straight away, rather than wait until after a formal Cabinet meeting.   This decision to announce the result was informed by confidentiality concerns and by advices received from Government Press / PR advisers.  The Tribunal alleged in its Opening Statement into the second mobile phone licence module that the prompt announcement of the competition result was evidence of possible wrongdoing on the part of the then Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications, Michael Lowry. 

 

In his evidence to the Tribunal on Day 279 (23 March 2004), the former Taoiseach, Mr. John Bruton stated as follows: 

 

“The choice was therefore between waiting to make the announcement after a formal Cabinet meeting or making the announcement straight away.  The decision was made to make the announcement straight away rather than wait to consider it further, because it was a decision that was in effect already made.  Once we had accepted the logic that we must go along with the result of the independent evaluation process, it was felt that delaying the matter over a weekend would have led to considerable pressure from disappointed bidders on politicians and others and that this would be unhealthy and unproductive.  Thus Michael Lowry was authorised to make the announcement.“

 

In his evidence to the Tribunal on Day 284 (31 March 2004), Mr Dick Spring stated as follows:

 

“It was primarily my political instinct that sooner — once the decision arrived, the sooner it was put into the public domain, through official channels, it was the better for everybody.”

 

In his evidence to the Tribunal on Day 283 (30 March 2004), Mr Sean Donlon, Programme Manager and Special Adviser to the Taoiseach, stated as follows:

 

“Government Procedure Instructions appear to allow decisions to be taken as this one was.   In my 30 years experience as a civil servant, I was aware of many Government decisions taken in that way either for reasons of urgency or confidentiality or both.”

 

The result of the second mobile phone licence competition process was therefore formally announced on 25 October 1995.   On 26 October 1995, the Irish Government took the following formal decisions:

 

“(1) noted the proposal to award a licence to Esat Digifone to provide and operate GSM mobile telephony within Ireland under the Postal and Telecommunications Services Act, 1983 with the statutory consent of the Minister for Finance and agreement of appropriate licence terms with Esat Digifone;

 

(2) noted that, in the event of failure of the licence negotiation process, the Minister proposed to seek agreement of licence terms with the second and subsequently, if necessary, the third ranked applications…”

 

The Department of Transport, Energy and Communications proceeded to negotiate the actual terms of the second mobile phone licence with Esat Digifone.  The licence was ultimately awarded on 16 May 1996 after a lengthy negotiation period- some 6 months later than had originally been envisaged.  Esat Digifone beagn offering commercial services to the Irish public in March of the following year.