MR MICHAEL LOWRY received almost £500,000 in various payments from Mr Ben Dunne, in addition to the £390,000 for the extension to his house, the tribunal was told.
These payments arose out of their business relationship and were all made before Mr Lowry became a minister. Mr Dunne had severed his relationship with the company by then.
Counsel for the tribunal, Mr Denis McCullough SC, outlined the development of the business relationship between Mr Lowry and Mr Dunne, beginning with Mr Lowry's original contract to supply refrigeration to his stores in the Munster area.
The agreement was that he would supply this service to Dunnes Stores at cost price, for which Mr Lowry would be paid £50,000 a year personally. In addition, Mr Lowry would be paid a bonus based on performance and decided upon by Mr Dunne. Mr Lowry was happy to agree.
"Dunnes Stores did have very considerable control over Geruda Ltd [Mr Lowry's company]," said Mr McCullough. "Part of this was that the Dunnes Stores accountant had direct access to his books, and would be able to inspect them whenever he chose to ensure it really was at cost price."
Dunnes Stores also provided start up capital of £90,000 to Mr Lowry's company, and facilitated his construction of a storage facility for refrigeration equipment. This involved a payment of £75,000, a total of £165,000.
This would be repaid through Mr Lowry submitting an invoice each year for four years, which would not be paid by Dunnes Stores. Thus the interest free loan for the facility would be paid.
Mr McCullough listed the payments made to Mr Lowry over the years. These included £6,000 for Christmas bonuses to his staff in 1989, £8,500 for the same purpose in 1990 and £8,000 in 1991.
In July 1991, he was paid £6,500, which was "payment of some kind for the storage facility", and in May the following year £50,000 was paid to Streamline, Mr Lowry's company, endorsed by Mr Lowry and paid into his building society account in Cork.
Mr Lowry had made statements to the Buchanan inquiry with regard to most of this money, but he did not deal with three payments of £8,500, £8,000 and £12,000.
There were other payments not referred to in his statement to the Dail. These included £25,000 sterling paid into an account for him in the Isle of Man on October 8th, 1990, and a further £40,000 sterling paid into the same account in August 1991.
These were paid into the account of Badgeworth held in the Rea Brothers bank on the Isle of Man. This was later transferred to Mr Lowry's building society account in Cork. In 1992 a further £40,000 sterling was paid into the Isle of Man account.
During this time Mr Lowry had acquired a house to which he wanted to build an extension. It would be Mr Dunne's evidence that Mr Lowry suggested that Mr Dunne pay for the improvements to the house. They agreed a figure of £200,000, though this was considerably exceeded.
The Dunnes architect, Mr Peter Stevens, did the work on the house, which included paintings, furniture and a custom made bed. The architect revealed that £395,000 had been spent, though Mr Lowry disputed this. Mr Lowry also paid some £31,000 towards the cost.
Mr McCullough stressed that Mr Lowry had co-operated very fully with the tribunal. "Mr Dunne and Mr Lowry will both say he made those payments in the course of a business relationship between his company and the Dunnes Stores group," he said. "Mr Dunne sought no political favours. None were offered and none given. It is up to the tribunal to decide on the motives."