Michael Lowry

Michael Lowry (born 13 March 1953) is an Irish politician. He is a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Tipperary North constituency since 1987.^[1]

Lowry is a former Chairman of the Fine Gael political party and was Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications between 1994 and 1996. He resigned his ministry in some controversy, and Fine Gael barred him from standing again. Thereafter, he ran as an independent candidate and has maintained his seat in the Dáil ever since. The Moriarty Tribunal concluded "beyond doubt" that Lowry was a tax evader and had assisted businessman Denis O'Brien's consortium Esat Digiphone in acquiring a lucrative mobile phone licence in the mid-1990s, during Lowry's time as Communications Minister. O'Brien went on to become one of the richest men in Ireland.^[2]

Lowry has also launched a defamation lawsuit against Irish Independent journalist Sam Smyth, over an article Smyth had written regarding the Moriarty Tribunal as well as comments Smyth had made on a TV3 show. The defamation lawsuit was thrown out of several courts and Lowry was ordered to pay Smyth's legal costs. In more recent times his relationship with Kevin Phelan has come under scrutiny, with the emergence of a recorded conversation in which Lowry claims to have made an undeclared payment of €250,000.

Despite being the subject of a criminal investigation resulting from several scandals pursuing him from his time in office, he continues to be very popular in his constituency.^[3]

Early life

Lowry was born in County Tipperary and educated at Thurles CBS. He was elected to Tipperary North Riding County Council in 1979. In the early 1980s, he was a GAA administrator, and was the youngest ever Chairman of the Tipperary County Committee.^[4] He also runs a commercial refrigeration business, Streamline Enterprises, founded in 1988.^[4][5] Later, as chairman of the Semple Stadium Development Committee, he was largely instrumental in raising the necessary funds for the refurbishment of the Stadium in preparation for the All-Ireland Centenary Hurling final in 1984.^[4]

National politics

Lowry was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fine Gael TD for Tipperary North at the 1987 general election and in 1993 he became Chairman of the Fine Gael Parliamentary Party.

In 1994, he was appointed Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications in the Rainbow Coalition government.

A succession of political scandals pursued Lowry throughout his time in office. These included allegations of irregularities relating to the granting of a mobile phone licence to Esat Telecom, which were later investigated by the Moriarty Tribunal, plans for the Dublin Light Rail System and the closure of rural post offices. The 1997 McCracken Tribunal revealed supermarket tycoon Ben Dunne had paid IR£395,000 for an extension to Lowry's home in Tipperary.^[6] The Tribunal concluded that Lowry had evaded tax.

This allegation prompted Lowry's resignation from the Cabinet in November 1996. Taoiseach John Bruton announced that Lowry would not be allowed stand as a Fine Gael candidate at the next election and he resigned from the party.

Lowry announced that he would stand as an independent candidate in the 1997. He topped the poll in his constituency in that election and did so again in the 2002 and 2007 general elections.^[7]

Lowry is backed by a strong local organisation in Tipperary known informally as "Team Lowry"^[8] which consists of 4 County Councillors in North Tipperary, 2 Town Councillors in Thurles and 1 Town Councillor in Templemore.^[9]

Lowry was re-elected to represent Tipperary North at the 2011 general election, heading the poll on the 1st count with 14,010 votes.^[10] Along with Michael Healy-Rae and Noel Grealish, he is not a member of the Dáil Technical Group.

Business interests

Lowry has directorships listed with the Companies Registration Office. He has two roles with Garuda Ltd, a manufacturer of electric domestic appliances; Abbeygreen Consulting, which involves construction work and special trades; and Gdlc Business Consultants Ltd., a business and management consultancy registered in Dublin. He also has an unlimited company called Glebeland Farm, which manages his bloodstock and livestock interests.^[11]

Lowry had some success with horse racing as a quarter partner in the MALM partnership, but has in recent times taken to flat-race breeding.^[11]

Lowry owned a horse called "Wedding Morn", though the price he paid for the horse is not known. The horse was covered by Coolmore's Danehill Dancer, from the stable of John Magnier. He would have paid up to €75,000 to have the horse covered. Another horse, "Probably" was sold by Lowry, which was the progeny of Wedding Morn. Wedding Morn delivered three foals including Probably, the three sold for a total of €410,000 by Lowry between 2009 and 2011.^[12] Lowry sold Wedding Morn in 2012 for €361,849.^[13]

Moriarty Tribunal: investigation and results

One of the remits of the Moriarty Tribunal, which sat from 1997 to 2011, was the investigation of payments to Lowry. In early 2007, Lowry announced that he had made a full and final settlement of all outstanding payments with the Revenue Commissioners in response to the findings concerning his tax evasion. His company Garuda had to pay up €1.2 million after a Revenue audit. He also paid almost €200,000 to settle his personal taxes.^[14]

In March 2011, the second and final report from the Moriarty Tribunal found that, during his time as Communications Minister, Michael Lowry assisted businessman Denis O'Brien's consortium Esat Digiphone in acquiring a lucrative mobile phone licence in the mid-1990s which ultimately made O'Brien one of the richest men in Ireland.^[2]

It concluded "beyond doubt" that Lowry gave what it termed "substantive information to Denis O'Brien, of significant value and assistance to him in securing the licence".^[2] The Tribunal report found that Lowry, displayed "an appreciable interest" in the process and had "irregular interactions with interested parties at its most sensitive stages".^[2] It also found that one of Lowry's interventions, which cut the selection process to the advantage of Esat, was "disgraceful" and "insidious", and that he had misled the Government, his party leader John Bruton and his own civil servants to influence the selection process in Esat's favour.^[15]

The tribunal also found that Lowry sought to procure unwarranted rent increases that over a seven-year period would have benefited businessman Ben Dunne. Lowry sought to influence the outcome of an arbitration being conducted in 1995 in relation to the rent payable by the then state-owned Telecom Éireann for Marlborough House to a company owned and controlled by Dunne. The report said that the matter was 'profoundly corrupt to a degree that was nothing short of breathtaking'.^[2]

The report also summarised the cumulative payments made to Lowry and says 'In aggregating the known payments from Mr Denis O'Brien to Mr Michael Lowry, it is apposite to note that, between the granting of the second GSM licence to Esat Digiphone in May 1996, and the transmission of £420,000 sterling to complete the purchase of the latter of Mr Lowry's English properties in December 1999, Mr O'Brien had made or facilitated payments to Mr Lowry of £147,000 sterling, £300,000 sterling and a benefit equivalent to a payment in the form of Mr O'Brien's support for a loan of £420,000 sterling.'^[2]

Lowry had addressed the Dáil saying that if he had been trying to hide a lot of money he would have "put it in an offshore account", implying that no such account existed. The Tribunal found that he actually had at least four such accounts that he used for the purpose of evading tax and had not disclosed these accounts to the previous McCracken Tribunal.^[4]

Lowry rejected the Moriarty report claiming that it was flawed, and that the assumptions and the conclusions that Justice Moriarty arrived at were totally baseless.^[15] Nonetheless, the Criminal Assets Bureau and the Bureau of Fraud were called in on 29 March 2011 to begin investigating his finances, since his €1.4 million settlement with the revenue commissioners did not grant him immunity from prosecution.^[16]

On 31 March 2011, following the Moriarty Report's publication, the Dáil passed an all-party motion calling on Lowry to voluntarily resign his seat.^[17]

Lowry v. Sam Smyth

In 2010, Lowry launched a defamation lawsuit against Irish Independent journalist Sam Smyth, over an article Smyth had written regarding the Moriarty Tribunal,^[18] as well as comments Smyth had made on a TV3 show describing Lowry as having been "caught with his hand in the till."^[19] Smyth defended the defamation claim, stating he had "did not call Michael Lowry TD a thief, but did believe he was a liar and a tax cheat".^[20] Lowry's defamation lawsuit was thrown out in the Circuit court,^[21] and again on appeal to the High Court.^[22] High Court Justice Nicholas Kearns noted that Lowry "did not dispute that he engaged in tax fraud",^[22] and ordered Lowry to pay Smyth's legal costs.^[23]

Undeclared land interest

It emerged in October 2012 that Lowry owned land in Wigan which he had failed to declare in his register of members' interests. Between 2001 and 2003, the 25-acre site had been owned by Liam Carroll and Vineacre Ltd, a UK property company owned by him and Mr Lowry. Vineacre Ltd was removed from the title in 2003 and Lowry declared his Vineacre interest until the company was dissolved in 2008. The land then became Lowry's and Carroll's in their own names, but he failed to declare his interest from 2008 onwards.^[24]

On 6 November 2012, Lowry amended his declaration to the Oireachtas to include the land interest, despite claiming previously that the land was "worthless". An unprecedented 380 complaints were made by members of the public in relation to the scandal, partly prompted by an article written by author Elaine Byrne.^[25][26] According to rules, the property must be worth more than €13,000 to be declared an interest. Lowry claimed the complaints were part of an "orchestrated campaign" against him.^[27]

As of December 2012, the probe into Lowry's failure to declare the land interest has been transferred to the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO).^[28]

Relationship with Kevin Phelan

In March 2013, Northern Ireland land scout Kevin Phelan revealed that Lowry had made payments to him in 2002 of which only half had been disclosed to the Moriarty Tribunal. The Sunday Independent released a secret recording of a telephone conversation made by Phelan, in which Lowry asks for nothing to be revealed about the payment to the tribunal.^[29] This was also broadcast on Tonight with Vincent Browne.^[30][31]

References

External links

• Official website