![\"Denis](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/3473a414-2f35-4c4b-b922-52680fd76ac0.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA statement from Mr O\u2019Brien said: \u201cI am pleased to put this chapter behind me. This welcome decision of the DPP supports my position throughout that the evidence to support such claims of criminal wrongdoing never existed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The news yesterday afternoon followed a similar statement from Tipp\u00aderary North Independent TD Michael Lowry on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Brien said: \u201cI welcome the decision of the independent Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions directing that there are to be no criminal proceedings pursued in relation to the matters contained in the Moriarty Tribunal report.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis decision on the part of the DPP was confirmed to me in recent days.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the first instance, I am very grateful to the members of An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na who conducted a thorough and diligent investigation into these matters. They acted with commendable diligence, courtesy and professionalism throughout.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am also very appreciative of the detailed consideration given to this matter by the DPP, which has ultimately led to this decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Denis O\u2019Brien<\/p>\n
News in 90 seconds – March 11 <\/p>\n
Like Mr Lowry, he strongly criticised tribunals of inquiry.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever well-intentioned they may have been at one point in history, trib\u00adunals of inquiry have proven to be a desperately flawed \u2013 and I believe desperately unfair \u2013 means of investigating matters of this nature in this country,\u201d the statement added.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, tribunals of inquiry did not serve the purpose for which they were intended. I would acknowledge that the task bestowed on Mr Justice Michael Moriarty was a difficult one. However, my own experience of the tribunal process involved a great many scarcely credible elements.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Moriarty Tribunal was established in September, 1997 to examine payments to former taoiseach Charles Haughey and then Fine Gael TD Mr Lowry.<\/p>\n
The tribunal\u2019s final report was published in March, 2011 and found that then minister Mr Lowry helped Mr O\u2019Brien secure the State\u2019s second mobile phone licence in 1995.<\/p>\n
It also criticised the TD\u2019s behaviour as \u201cprofoundly corrupt to a degree that was nothing short of breathtaking\u201d.<\/p>\n
The findings were strongly rejected by those at the centre of the criticisms.<\/p>\n
The 2011 report was referred by the government to An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na. Then the DPP had to decide whether any criminal charges would be brought.<\/p>\n
In his statement on Tuesday, Mr Lowry said the tribunal\u2019s findings \u201chave allowed me to be subjected to repeated insults, smears and false allegations, with no legal remedy available to me\u201d.<\/p>\n
He described how the whole process had taken almost 30 years, with the trib\u00adunal lasting 14 years and then a 13-year garda investigation.<\/p>\n
Throughout it, he \u201cfully co-operated with the garda\u00ed and voluntarily met them and answered all questions\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A statement from Mr O\u2019Brien said: \u201cI am pleased to put this chapter behind me. This welcome decision…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7517,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-341275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-denis-obrien","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}