The former minister for transport, energy and communications, Mr Michael Lowry, changed the bidding process for applicants for the second mobile phone licence when he took up office in December 1994, the Moriarty tribunal has heard.
In February 1995, Mr Lowry amended the competition procedures to allow him eliminate certain candidates before all the applications had been examined in full.
Mr John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, made reference to an aide memoire in this month in which Mr Lowry informed the Government of the decision to "elevate" questions of financial and technical capacity to a position whereby the Minister would consider them in the form of a "chapeau" ( a form of threshold) to prospective bidders.
In January 1995, Mr Lowry informed the Government of a decision to drop a demand for royalty fees from the successful bidder, setting a basic entrance fee of £5 million instead.
Delivering his opening statement, Mr Coughlan traced the history of the application process from March 1994 when an inter-Departmental project group was first established to examine the issue. Documents showed that in March 1995 this group drew up ground rules "as a matter of prudence" on how people should deal with potential bidders.
The rules stated: "One, always at least two people (should be) present on our side; two, always stress that discussion is by way of informal clarification subject to formalisation in the written information round provided for in the competition; three, always produce a brief record of attendance and discussion; four, as a general rule contact should be in the office thus avoiding social exchange, which almost by definition cannot be controlled."
Opening yesterday's hearing, the chairman of the tribunal, Mr Justice Michael Moriarty, said the phase covering the awarding of the second mobile phone licence had been "unusually demanding" on the tribunal, and would require a lengthy opening statement.
He said he expected that statement would include some reference "to the aspect of selective media leaks in recent days, which at this stage of the tribunal's history may not be especially surprising but are no more welcome for that".
He offered his condolences on behalf of the tribunal and its staff to the family of the former Fine Gael TD, the late Mr Jim Mitchell.
