Michael Lowry,Regrets statement to Dáil
Michael Lowry has said that it had annoyed him "intensely" that his name had been bandied about in Esat Digifone in a hurtful and damaging manner.
He was being questioned at the Moriarty Tribunal about a conversation between Denis O'Brien and Esat Chief Executive Barry Maloney in which Denis O'Brien claimed to have made a payment of £100,000 to the former minister.
Mr O'Brien told the Tribunal that he had thought about making the payment but had not done so. He claimed that the conversation took place during a run in the Wicklow Mountains.
Mr Lowry said that it was "bull in the mountains". He said that he was not responsible for Denis O'Brien's thoughts, good, bad or indifferent. And he repeated that he never sought or received money from Denis O'Brien.
Michael Lowry earlier accused the Moriarty Tribunal of trying to weave a web of intrigue that does not exist. Lawyers for the Tribunal had asked Mr Lowry if he was concerned that the £147,000 used to open his offshore account in the Isle of Man originally came from Denis O'Brien.
Gerry Healy SC, for the Tribunal said he was glad that Mr Lowry had used the term "web of intrigue". He said that the Tribunal had a problem because it appeared that Denis O'Brien had taken a "roundabout way" of paying David Austin for an apartment in Spain.
Mr Healy then outlined the "web". He said that Mr Lowry had opened the offshore account in October 1996; he described himself as a company director, and gave his accountants' address instead of his home address, without any authority from his accountants.
At the same time, a Netherlands' company, controlled by Denis O'Brien with an account in a Dublin bank, sent money to an Isle of Man account in the name of Mr O'Brien's accountant, Aidan Phelan. Mr Phelan lived in Dublin but gave the bank a US address.
The money was transferred to David Austin's account in a bank in Jersey and was then turned around and routed back up to the Isle of Man to the account set up in Mr Lowry's name.
Mr Healy asked Mr Lowry to put himself in the position of the Tribunal. He said that there was an invitation to make connections between the events. Mr Lowry said that the Tribunal had accepted that invitation.
The former minister has now spent a third day denying that he deliberately hid an offshore account from the Tribunal and from his own advisers.
Counsel for the Tribunal expressed surprise when Mr Lowry told them that he had never actually read the terms of reference governing the Tribunal.
Mr Lowry was asked about the loan agreement drawn up between himself and David Austin. This was a document drawn up by the two men, signed by Michael Lowry and dated 24 October 1996.
Lawyers for the Tribunal asked the former minister if it was possible that the document could have been drawn up some time later and then backdated. Mr Lowry said "absolutely not".
Gerry Healy for the Tribunal put it to Mr Lowry that if the £147,000, held in an offshore account, was not a loan, it would be very simple to give it the appearance of a loan by putting together such a document. Mr Lowry said that the money was a loan.
The account was opened in Mr Lowry's name in the Irish Nationwide in the Isle of Man in October 1996. Mr Lowry says the account was set up for him by the Fine Gael fundraiser, the late David Austin, to receive a loan for the refurbishment of Mr Lowry's house in Blackrock, County Dublin.
Counsel for the Tribunal, Gerry Healy, SC, asked Mr Lowry why neither he nor his advisers had brought this account to the attention of the Tribunal until earlier this year.
He said the Tribunal wanted to find out whether the non-disclosure of this account should be taken into account when examining the circumstances in which David Austin paid money to Mr Lowry.
Mr Lowry said he had not read the terms of reference of the Moriarty Tribunal when it was set up in 1997. He was generally aware of them and he did not think this offshore account was relevant, as it was a loan, not a gift or a payment.
As soon as he realised it was relevant he disclosed it to the Tribunal. He said that he regretted he had not done so sooner.
Mr Lowry also said he should have confined the statement he made in the Dáil after he resigned in 1996 to approximately two lines. He told the Tribunal that no matter what he had put in it, he would have been accused of something.
The Tribunal is questioning Mr Lowry about a passage in his Dáil statement in which he said that if he really wanted to hide money, he would have put it in an offshore account.
At the time, he had four offshore accounts. He later had to apologise to the Dáil for the statement. He told the Tribunal today that his advisers were aware that he had offshore accounts but were not aware of the specific details.
