The Independent TD and former Fine Gael minister, Mr Michael Lowry, admitted yesterday that correspondence sent by one of his solicitors to the Moriarty tribunal contained information which "completely misrepresented" his affairs, writes Joe Humphreys.
Mr Lowry said this was not done on his instruction.
Rather, he said he believed the UK-based solicitor, Mr Christopher Vaughan, had created "errors" after becoming "confused".
Mr Lowry, who was appearing in the witness box for the first time since November 2001, was questioned on a series of letters, which came to light as part of the tribunal's investigation into the former minister's links with businessman Mr Denis O'Brien.
The tribunal is seeking to establish whether some of the letters may have been designed to conceal Mr Lowry's involvement in the purchase of a property at St Columba's Church, Cheadle, England in 1999.
Mr Vaughan acted for Mr Lowry in the purchase, and on request from the tribunal, supplied it with information on the transaction.
The tribunal received a letter dated July 12th, 2000, from Mr Vaughan to Mr Kevin Phelan, a Northern Ireland businessman who also acted for Mr Lowry in the transaction, in which the purchaser was falsely identified as Mr Aidan Phelan, accountant to Mr O'Brien.
A "long form" letter of the same date, which has since come into the possession of the tribunal through Irish Times journalist Mr Colm Keena, identified the purchaser simply as "our client".
Mr Jerry Healy SC, for the tribunal, said the only possible explanation was that there was a decision to remove reference to Mr Lowry from the documentation.
But Mr Lowry replied: "I cannot accept that. There would absolutely no reason why that should be necessary. . ."
The tribunal heard that another letter from Mr Vaughan, dated September 5th, 2000, appeared to have been altered to remove references to "Michael".
Asked about this, Mr Lowry replied: "I don't know who the reference to Michael is. But if it is to me. . .it is obviously wrong, and he (Mr Vaughan) made a mistake."
In previous evidence, Mr Lowry had said he had divested himself of involvement in the property in January/February 2000.
Mr Lowry said he wished to refute any suggestion that he was involved in hiding his presence in this and another UK property transaction.
He accepted it would be "horrible" and "horrific" if Mr Vaughan had fabricated documents but said he had no evidence he had done so.
Mr Lowry added he would ask his solicitor to take up the matter with the UK Law Society after Mr Healy said he would be surprised if Mr Lowry did not do so on the basis that Mr Vaughan had failed to provide Mr Lowry with an adequate explanation for the letters.
Instead of an explanation, Mr Vaughan had this year sent Mr Lowry a letter which was "rambling all over the place but not dealing with the issues," said Mr Healy.
Mr Vaughan has told the tribunal he is unwilling to give oral evidence because of health and other reasons.
The tribunal was adjourned until October.