A very unsavoury smell emerged from the evidence given yesterday by the former Fine Gael minister Mr Michael Lowry concerning the so-called upper echelons of Irish society in the 1990s.
In 1995 Mr Lowry was a significant force within the party, not least because of his fund-raising abilities. As is now clear, his ability to raise money extended to his personal finances.
In October 1995 he oversaw the competition for the lucrative mobile phone licence, won by Esat Digifone. During that year Mr Lowry's close friend, Smurfit director the late Mr David Austin, was involved in organising a Fine Gael fund-raising dinner in New York which was to raise approximately $230,000. Mr Lowry was involved, at least in the early stages. He later stood back from the matter, he said yesterday, because he was so busy with Government work.
It was the New York dinner which led to a $50,000 payment by Telenor/Esat Digifone to Fine Gael, via Mr Austin, in December 1995. Mr Austin had the money lodged to an account in Jersey in his name, where it remained until passed on to Fine Gael in June 1997. Mr Lowry said yesterday he knew nothing of this at the time, even though he and Mr Austin would speak at least weekly.
In the summer of 1996, Mr Lowry was looking for a Dublin home and asked up to 10 property developers to keep an eye out for him. Mr Austin had suggested Mr Lowry get a property worthy of his position.
That same summer Mr Austin, according to the evidence of Mr Denis O'Brien, was selling a house he had in Spain. Mr O'Brien, who was a friend of Mr Austin and who had instigated the $50,000 political donation, bought the house for £150,000. The money was lodged to a newly opened account in Mr Austin's name in Jersey.
Meanwhile a friend of Mr Austin and Mr Lowry, the late Mr Michael Holly, identified a house on Carysfort Avenue, Blackrock, Dublin, which might be suitable for Mr Lowry. He bought it for £200,000 at auction, and offered to sell it on to the powerful minister at cost. That is what happened.
The house needed substantial work and Mr Holly's company was to carry this out. Mr Lowry, at the time, had substantial, undeclared funds in an offshore account in the Channel Islands which would have been sufficient to pay for this renovation. The amount needed was approximately £150,000. The undeclared money had come from Mr Ben Dunne.
The purchase price of the Blackrock home was to come from the Irish Permanent Building Society, according to Mr Lowry. He discussed his overall financial position with Mr Austin, with great candour it would seem. They discussed the money in the Channel Islands which was hidden from the Revenue. They also discussed what Mr Lowry said was his difficult domestic position at the time.
Mr Austin, according to Mr Lowry, suggested that he loan the money needed for the renovation work to Mr Lowry. This was so Mr Lowry would not have to repatriate his undeclared income. A note was scrawled by Mr Austin and signed by both men. A loan of £147,000 was to be made at commercial interest rates and to be repaid in five years, the note read. This was in October 1996, around the time Mr Austin was diagnosed as having terminal cancer.
What has the tribunal really interested in this whole matter is that the money which came from Mr O'Brien, and which was lodged in Jersey, was used for the Lowry loan. It was lodged to a new account in Mr Lowry's name in the Isle of Man. Mr Lowry said this was Mr Austin's idea.
Soon the whole dirty affair had to be put in reverse. Mr Lowry was exposed as a tax cheat. He sold the Carysfort house back to Mr Holly. On February 7th, 1997, the day the McCracken tribunal was established, the £147,000 was sent back to Mr Austin.
Mr Lowry gave evidence to the Moriarty tribunal concerning the whole Carysfort saga. He said on a number of occasions that he was making everything available to the tribunal, but he never told those hearings about the Austin loan or the Isle of Man account. For this he apologised yesterday.