It is alleged that as a result of benefits extended to

Michael Lowry Michael Lowry (born 13 March 1953) is an Irish Independent politician who has served as a Teachta Dála (TD) since 1987, currently for the Tipperary constituency. He previously served as Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications from 1 ...

Denis O'Brien Denis O'Brien (born 19 April 1958) is an Irish billionaire businessman, and the founder and owner of Digicel. He was listed among the World's Top 200 Billionaires in 2015 and was Ireland's richest native-born citizen for a period of several ye ...

that Esat Digifone was given an unfair advantage in the procurement of a mobile phone operator's licence. The

Moriarty Tribunal The Moriarty Tribunal, officially called the Tribunal of Inquiry into certain Payments to Politicians and Related Matters, was an Irish Tribunal of Inquiry established in 1997 into the financial affairs of politicians Charles Haughey and Michael ...

found evidence of collusion between Lowry and O'Brien: "There are three significant findings which are largely beyond dispute. They are: * Denis O’Brien gave substantial sums of money to Fine Gael in order to make friends with people in the party. This happened at a time when Fine Gael was in government and O’Brien was seeking a government decision in his favour. * Michael Lowry sought to be involved, to a greater or lesser degree, in the licensing process, seeking information about it on a number of occasions * Denis O’Brien, or persons close to him, subsequently sought to give large amounts of money to Michael Lowry."

References

{{Reflist Political scandals in the Republic of Ireland Michael Lowry