Galway Bay fm newsroom - Several pretrial motions in a long-running action over the awarding of the country's second mobile phone licence in 1996 to Esat Digfone have opened before the High Court.
Comcast International Holdings Inc, Ganley International Ltd, GCI Ltd and businessman Declan Ganley have brought an action over the awarding of the second mobile phone licence, a competition in which their Cellstar consortium was an unsuccessful bidder.
In their action seeking damages, the plaintiffs claim that that the decision to award Esat Digifone the licence was not merited, and that the selection of that company was as a result of the corruption of the process.
It is also claimed that the process used to select the winning bidder for the licence was flawed.
The proceedings are against the Minister for Public Enterprise, the State, businessman Denis O'Brien, and former FG minister and now Independent TD for Tipperary Michael Lowry TD.
The defendants all deny the claims.
The action was initiated in 2001 and has been before the courts on many previous occasions.
In several motions, the plaintiffs seek the discovery of documents and records from the defendants they claim are necessary to advance the Comcast party's claims.
The defendants oppose the applications on grounds that the discovery sought is onerous, and much of what is being sought dates back to the mid-1990s.
The motions for discovery opened on Tuesday before Mr Justice Senan Allen, and the hearing is expected to last several days.
The case continues.
