Irish Times columnist, presenter of TV3’s Midweek, Moriarty Tribunal witness and Denis O’Brien chum Sarah Carey went on Prime Time last night.
Her task was twofold: Put a gloss on the findings of the Moriarty Report that related to Denis and herself.
And could she do this without appearing smug and shifty?
It was a big ask.
Miriam O’Callaghan: “What’s your reaction…?”
Sarah Carey: “Well, Miriam, apart from working for Denis O’Brien I was a witness at the tribunal. I had run-ins with them. I leaked some information about a donation Denis O’Brien made to the Progressive Democrats, and I denied that to the tribunal. And as one of my friends said to me today: ‘Sarah, you’re emotionally involved in this’.
“So I understand that people will naturally and, you know, logically discount my opinion on it. But if I thought for a second, you know – and I just want to assure you on this – that there was anything about that licence that was unsound, I wouldn’t be here tonight to defend it, and I wouldn’t flinch from condemning anyone who was a party to that. ”
O’Callaghan: “So why would Moriarty say this?”
Carey: “So I heard all these phrases today, like, you’d a ‘venal’ abuse of power, and ‘overreaching’, you know all this really inflammatory language, so when I went to the report and got to the sections where the actual substantive issue of what this so-called venal abuse of power was, I actually couldn’t find anything that changed my mind about the point that I have been making all the time.”
O’Callaghan: “Before I get onto what he said about you, Sarah, what you say is you reject what Justice Moriarty found?”
Carey: “What I say is that, based on the sworn evidence at the tribunal of the 17 civil servants, of the senior counsel Richard Nesbitt, of the independent consultant Michael Andersen, of the staff from the Attorney General’s office, who swore that there had been no interference, I believe that evidence to be credible – and this is the important bit – in order for Michael Moriarty to have drawn the conclusions that he has drawn, he has had to completely discount that evidence.”
O’Callaghan: “And the 900,000 sterling to Michael Lowry?”
Carey: “Yeah but when you go through all of those, it’s kind of flimsy, and, and I would say this: as bad as the money trail looks, you have to go back then to the fundamental question, was there a benefit – ”
O’Callaghan: “OK I just want, I just want to put something because you brought it up yourself, obviously, that you were in the tribunal, but just to say what he said about you. In relation to the leaked confidential information relating to the political donations. When you were asked about this, he says, at the tribunal, you first lied and denied it although you did later admit to it. The report describes what you did as irresponsible and not remotely justified by the explanation you provided.”
Carey: “Em, yeah, I mean there was a lot of leaking going on and, ah, I naively and stupidly got involved in that. But I don’t think that changes the fundamental issue which is that those civil servants swore under oath Michael Lowry had not interfered in the process, that Esat Digifone was the fair winner, and nothing that anyone draws about the conclusion can change that sworn evidence.”
O’Callaghan: “One last question about yourself: the report also found that you used your Fine Gael connections to put you at the centre of a number of substantial donations of cash from Denis O’Brien to Fine Gael, and in particular it quotes one letter from you to Phil Hogan, and I’m just, it’s, very briefly because I think it says a lot about connections. It goes: ‘Dear Phil, please find enclosed a draft for the golf on the 16th’ – this is to be a Fine Gael fundraiser – ‘I understand Denis O’Brien has requested that there are no references to be made to his contribution at the event. Best of luck on the day’. Doesn’t that just say to people watching Sarah Carey, powerful people buying influence?”
Carey: [laughs] “OK. Look. We’re talking about a golf fundraiser and there was a donation of a few thousand pounds to it. These kind of things were run of the mill for all political parties and Denis O’Brien was making donations to all political parties – Fianna Fáil, the PDs, Fine Gael, everybody. You know. It’s really peripheral to the main issue.”
Read the Irish Times oh-so-responsible coverage of Sarah’s boo-boo here.
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