The Moriarty Tribunal has finished its two days of public sittings and has adjourned until October when it will examine the awarding of the second mobile phone licence to Esat Digifone. This afternoon Mr Michael Lowry once again rejected any inference that he had anything to do with the redrafting of letters sent to the Moriarty Tribunal regarding a controversial property deal.
Giving evidence to the tribunal this afternoon the former Fine Gael Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications said he was "not happy" that there were two versions of the letters but insisted that he had no knowledge of their existence before his solicitors received copies from the tribunal in June this year.
Lawyers for the tribunal suggested that Mr Lowry’s former British solicitor Mr Charles Vaughan had "not provided the tribunal with a meaningful explanation" for the different versions of the letters.
The "long form" of the letters suggest, contrary to evidence given to the tribunal last November, that Mr Lowry was still involved in two UK properties in mid 2000.
These properties are at the centre of a number of complicated transactions which link Mr Lowry with businessman Mr Denis O’Brien.
The tribunal heard that Mr Vaughan told the tribunal that at times he was "confused" about who his client was in relation to the two properties in Mansfield and Cheadle, England.
Tribunal lawyers suggested that "no ordinary member of the public" would think there’d be confusion over such a matter, to which Mr Lowry responded "I simply can’t explain."
Counsel for the tribunal, Mr Jerry Healy SC, then questioned Mr Lowry in detail about evidence he gave last year concerning a number of meetings he held with various advisors. These included Mr Lowry’s accountant Mr Dennis O’Connor, Aidan Phelan, property consultant Mr Kevin Phelan and Helen Malone.
The tribunal’s lawyer sought to establish whether any of Mr Lowry’s advisors had said that Mr Vaughan had told them he sometimes confused Mr Lowry with others. Neither Mr Lowry, nor his accountant, Mr O’Connor, who also gave evidence this afternoon, said they could recollect Mr Vaughan saying he got confused.
The tribunal will resume public sittings in October.