Moriarty tribunal:An inquiry by Denis O'Brien's family into a possible reference to Michael Lowry in a fax did not involve asking the recipient of the fax what he thought the reference was to.
The fax was sent to a close associate of Mr O'Brien, Dublin accountant Aidan Phelan, and seemed to contain a reference to Mr Lowry in connection with a £4.3 million property transaction in Doncaster in 1998 with which Mr Lowry has said he has no connection.
Mr Phelan said he had no memory of receiving the fax and that he had given his files to the O'Brien family company, Westferry, some years ago.
When the content of the fax was noted within William Fry solicitors, the firm that was acting for the O'Brien family, its potential significance for the tribunal was noted and a "to do" list was drawn up by Owen O'Connell, a senior partner in Fry's.
The list included contacting Mr Phelan. However, Mr Phelan yesterday told John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, that he had not been contacted.
The fax dated August 1999 was addressed to Mr Phelan and was from Northern Ireland businessman Kevin Phelan (no relation).
A copy was sent to William Fry solicitors in 2002 by Kevin Phelan's solicitors in the context of negotiations with Kevin Phelan over money he said he was owed from the Doncaster deal.
The tribunal has heard that Denis O'Brien snr had taken over these negotiations at the request of his son and was instructing Fry's.
The 1999 fax was headed, "Doncaster Project", and included a paragraph headed "ML" which read: "Kevin Phelan to refer all queries regarding Doncaster to Aidan Phelan."
Kevin Phelan's solicitors were informed that the dispute could not be settled until he provided an explanation for the reference. The evidence indicates that Mr Lowry's accountant, Denis O'Connor, was involved in negotiations with Kevin Phelan at this time.
An explanation to the effect that the ML reference was a reference to Mr Lowry, but was in connection with property in Mansfield, not Doncaster, was eventually supplied and a settlement payment of £150,000 was made to Kevin Phelan. The matter was never brought to the attention of the tribunal.
Aidan Phelan agreed with Mr Coughlan that the explanation that had been furnished by Kevin Phelan made "no sense". Kevin Phelan was running the Mansfield project at the time so the idea of referring queries to Aidan Phelan made no sense.
He agreed he would have said the explanation made no sense if he had been asked, but he had never been asked.
When Eoin McGonigal SC, for Mr O'Brien, asked if the fax made sense as it read, with the reference to Doncaster, Aidan Phelan said it did not.
Mr Phelan told David Barniville SC, for Mr Lowry and Mr O'Connor, that he had never heard of Mr Lowry having an involvement in the Doncaster transaction and that he "should" have heard of Mr Lowry being involved if he was.
The tribunal heard that Aidan Phelan was involved in several property transactions or potential deals in England in the late 1990s. These involved properties in Luton, Doncaster, Mansfield, Cheadle and Altrincham. Mr Lowry was involved in the properties in Mansfield and Cheadle.
Mr Phelan did not believe the former minister was involved in the other properties.
He said he had not changed his view that Mr Lowry had no connection with Doncaster, despite all he had heard from the tribunal.
