Michael McDowell has joined the Moriarty legal team

[stanley]

Interesting day at the Tribunal.

And also begs the question why it was set up in the first place.

Why did they wait until the very end to bring in that professor guy who was central to the decision making and who was part of an independent team who made the decision?

I am beginning to believe these Tribunals are just a gravy train for some and its in their interests to prolong them as long as possible. I sincerely hope we see the end of these Tribunals, and from now on the DPP and Gardai investigate any allegations of wrong doing in any awarding of licences, contracts, etc because it's pretty clear now lawyers have no interest in a quick wind up of Tribunals.

In any case it seems the worst Lowry may have done was advise O'Brien that he needed more financial muscle behind his bid. While not an ideal situation, it's hardly a case of Lowry making the final decision.

The Govt created the auction, the Govt created the Tribunal, The Govt employed Andersen, shouldn't the Govt have had all kinds of cover involving Andersen and the team, the Govt would not indemnify Andersen to appear at the Tribunal years ago and DOB got around it and got him in the seat.

The real people in control are the Govt.

[stanley]

Moriarty Tribunal ends on a tense note after 13 years - National News, Frontpage - Independent.ie


"The Danish consultant said they were "murdering Martin Brennan".

At the end of the day in Dublin Castle, Michael McDowell SC, for the tribunal, asked Prof Andersen his opinion on the then minister Mr Lowry meeting Mr O'Brien in a pub and giving him "candidate-specific information" about the competition.

Prof Andersen said: "I don't think it would generally be correct."

Mr McDowell also asked Prof Andersen to explain how his team got crucial scorings in the competition wrong that could have affected the result.

Prof Andersen said he couldn't explain how it happened but he would look into it".




Andersen heads into the sun, Moriarty now has to consider his evidence and McDowell (above) goes to the heart of it, Lowry goes back to Nth Tipp to prepare the son to take over his seat.

[anewbeginning]

So Andersen was always going to be the most important witness, yet he is brought in at the very end.

In fact, you could have written a tribunal report simply on what Andersen said alone, and determine if what he said is correct or not. I think his opinion will be highly influential in the final report.

Something went badly wrong with this tribunal and it will cost us all a fortune.

Whether the fault lies with the government or the Tribunal people themselves I don't know. But Andersen should have been brought in at the start, and the Tribunal could almost have been wrapped up there and then.

There was never any chance you would get the truth out of 90% of the other witnesses because they had a vested interest. Independent experts are always the most valuable witnesses.

Let's hope we never have a Tribunal like this again. A costly and sorry carryover from the Celtic Tiger years when public money was thrown around like confetti.