DUNNES Stores manager in Co Cork contacted Mr Michael Lowry to seek information about a prosecution being taken against his outlet by the Department of Agriculture and to see if the case could be adjourned.
The case was adjourned for one month, the tribunal was told. When it eventually came to court Dunnes Stores was fined Pounds 50 with Pounds 150 costs.
A lawyer, Mr Garrett Cooney, said Mr Lowry would give evidence that he made contact with an officer in the Chief State Solicitor's office in Cork and was told the case would be adjourned. He had then passed on that information.
Mr Bernard Walsh, who was at the time manager of a Dunnes Stores outlet in Ballyvolane, Co Cork, told Mr Anthony Aston, counsel for the tribunal, of receiving a summons in May 1995. The summons concerned the sale of potatoes unfit under the Food Act and was to be heard in the District Court in Cork on May 24th.
The summons was from the Minister for Agriculture. This was unusual as most such summonses came from the Southern Health Board rather than the Department, he said. "I was unsure of what to do. I decided to ring Michael Lowry." The court case was due in about a week and he wanted to try to get some time.
Mr Lowry told Mr Walsh he knew nothing about it and would try to find out. Mr Lowry rang back a few days later and said the case was being handled by the Chief State Solicitor's office in Cork and would be postponed for about a month.
Mr Walsh said he then sent the summons to the company's solicitors. Asked why he had contacted Mr Lowry before contacting the solicitors, Mr Walsh said: "Michael would be a friend of mine going back, say, 20 years."
Mr Aston: "But was Michael Lowry a legal expert?"
Mr Walsh: No. But he was a politician at that stage and this (the summons) was coming from the Minister for Agriculture."
Mr Walsh said he knew Mr Lowry mainly through the GAA but also through Mr Lowry's business dealings with Dunnes Stores.
Mr Lowry had been involved in the maintenance of refrigeration services for Dunnes up to the time he became a minister.
The tribunal chairman, Mr Justice McCracken, asked Mr Walsh if it was not the case that his solicitor had been instructed before May 24th the date for the case on the summons. Mr Walsh said he thought it was the 26th. Mr Justice McCracken asked if he knew who had asked the District Court for an adjournment. Mr Walsh said: "No.
Mr Justice McCracken said it was presumably the prosecution.
Mr Walsh: "Probably, yes."
In reply to Mr Garrett Cooney SC, for Dunnes Stores, Mr Walsh said nobody in authority in the Dunnes Stores organisation had approached him to contact Mr Lowry. He had decided on his own to do so because of his friendship with Mr Lowry and his knowledge that Mr Lowry had done business with Dunnes Stores in supplying refrigeration services.
Asked if he had made any attempt to affect the outcome of the case, Mr Walsh said: "Absolutely not."
He agreed with Mr Aston that he had contacted Mr Lowry for two reasons; to get information on the procedures involved and to get an adjournment.
When Mr Justice McCracken said that presumably Mr Lowry had procured the adjournment, counsel for Dunnes Stores objected.
Mr Cooney said Mr Lowry would give evidence that he made contact with an officer in the Chief State Solicitor's office in Cork and was told the case would be adjourned. He had then passed on that information.