Republican News · Thursday 1 August 2002

New inquiry into Lowry phone licence

BY ROBBIE MacGABHANN

You have to feel sorry for former Fine Gael minister, party chairperson and trustee Michael Lowry and former ESAT boss, tax exile and multi-millionaire Denis O'Brien. They are being unfairly victimised by outrageous publicity stunts and worse still by unfounded "innuendo".

Michael Lowry made his third appearance at the Moriarty Tribunal this week. Like his first two excursions, his latest foray left little clear about his complex business dealings and ever more questions about what goes on in the life of Michael.

This time, the tribunal, in its first public hearings in nine months, was questioning Lowry and Denis O'Brien about their business dealings together. Central to Lowry's questioning were two versions of letters from his solicitors concerning property being bought on his behalf. The letters are from English solicitor Christopher Vaughan to Kevin Phelan, a property consultant based in Omagh.

In one version of the letter there are references to a "Michael" and an "Aidan". In the version of the letter furnished to the tribunal, there are no references to the two names. It has already been established by the tribunal last summer that Michael Lowry and Aidan Phelan, Denis O'Brien's accountant, had been involved in financial dealings with money being taken from accounts controlled by O'Brien and used to buy property on behalf of Lowry.

In his last tribunal visit, it has also been found that Lowry had £140,000 in a Channel Islands bank account which he had forgotten to tell the tribunal about.

This time out, Lowry said that the correspondence sent by one of his solicitors to the Moriarty Tribunal contained information that "completely misrepresented" his affairs. The solicitor, Christopher Vaughan, who has refused to give evidence to the tribunal for health reasons, was "confused", according to Lowry. It is ironic; most of us have difficulties getting solicitors to actually act on instructions, while this one apparently acts without them.

It all adds up to another bizarre chapter in the business life of Michael Lowry, who it seems, has always been able to strike up intimate financial relationships with some of Ireland's wealthiest business people.

The Moriarty Tribunal, which only sat for two days this week, also announced it was going to open a new front in its proceedings. They will investigate the awarding by Lowry during his time as Public Enterprise minister of the second mobile phone licence to Denis O'Brien's ESAT digifone consortium. O'Brien sold the franchise, now called O2, to British Telecom, netting him IR£230 million in the process.

O'Brien, who complained bitterly about being forced to come and give evidence to the Tribunal during his holidays, welcomed this new investigation. He said, "There is a lot of innuendo around". Interesting, because this is a word favoured by Lowry. Last October, giving evidence, Lowry said there was "outrageous innuendo and gossip" about the awarding of the licence to Esat.

Lowry must like the word, because in 1996, when trying to explain his then complex business arrangements with Ben Dunne, which also involved tax fraud, he complained in a Leinster House speech of "innuendoes and manufactured allegations which have been made against me".

It doesn't seem to have occurred to Lowry, either then or now, that there is so much under question with his business dealings from misinformation and unintentional forgetfulness that innuendo just isn't necessary.

Maybe we should remind ourselves of how Michael Lowry ended his Leinster House speech in December 1996. Lowry said: "In conclusion, let me assure you of this. What you have heard is the truth - plain but not simple." If only we could really be sure. How much more confusion and misrepresentation are we in for?