The banker who granted a controversial loan to Denis O'Brien's accountant, Aidan Phelan, has told the Moriarty Tribunal that Mr Phelan never told him that the money was for Michael Lowry. Michael Tunney said that he believed from start to finish of this transaction that the money was for Mr Phelan personally.
Aidan Phelan has already told the Tribunal that he made it clear to Mr Tunney that the loan application was on behalf of Mr Lowry. Michael Tunney's account of what transpired contradicts in different aspects what at least three other witnesses have told the Tribunal. Several of those witnesses have also contradicted each other on a variety of points.
A millionaire Cork businessman rejected suggestions that an agreement he says he gave to guarantee a loan for Michael Lowry was in fact a smokescreen designed to create a false paper trail. Counsel for the Tribunal, John Coughlan, made the suggestion while questioning John Daly about his involvement in a property deal which was financed by a controversial loan from Woodchester bank.
Mr Daly said that he believed what Michael Lowry had told him, that the transaction was genuine. He agreed however that he had left his friend "in the lurch" when in the space of a few short weeks he changed his mind and decided not to go guarantor. Mr Daly also agreed that despite leaving Mr Lowry in the lurch the two men remained the best of friends.
The Tribunal earlier heard more about the concerns the British bank, Investec UK, developed about a loan they inherited when they took over Woodchester Bank in Ireland. The loan was taken out in late 1999 by Denis O'Brien's accountant. The bank later discovered it was for a Michael Lowry company. Lawyers spent the morning cross-examining banking executive Tony Moreland about the matter.
