Lowry rejects calls to stand down

Former Fine Gael communications minister Michael Lowry said today he was "deeply hurt" by the conclusions of the Moriarty tribunal.

Speaking on TippFM this morning, Mr Lowry, who is now an independent TD for Tipperary North, rejected calls for him to stand down.

"I've not the slightest intention of doing that. I have absolutely done nothing wrong," he said.

Mr Lowry was speaking for the first time since the publication of the Moriarty tribunal second and final report yesterday.

The report shows that Mr Lowry "secured the winning" of the 1995 mobile phone licence competition for Denis O'Brien's Esat Digifone. The marathon tribunal has also said that Mr O'Brien made two payments to Mr Lowry in 1996 and 1999 totalling approximately £500,000 and supported a loan of £420,000 given to Mr Lowry in 1999.

In his 2,348-page report Mr Justice Michael Moriarty found that the payments from Mr O'Brien were "demonstrably referable to the acts and conduct of Mr Lowry" during the licence process, acts which benefited Esat Digifone.

The report also finds that Mr Lowry, when minister, interfered in a rent arbitration process in an attempt to secure a benefit for the businessman Ben Dunne, who was making payments to Mr Lowry.

However, speaking this morning the former minister claimed today the case against him was "threadbare" and accused the tribunal of ignoring and dismissing evidence from key witnesses.

He went on to claim that he had been smeared by the tribunal findings.

"I have never received any money from Denis O'Brien and I have never received any money from anybody on his behalf," he said.

"(Judge) Moriarty has put fake substance to a report which was tired. He has given 14 years at it, he has cost the taxpayers millions in money. He sat above in Dublin Castle for 14 years. He allowed his barristers to be paid €2,250 a day or €54,000 a month. They stuffed their bank accounts with it, they became millionaires, they tortured me in the process and now they come up with a limp report which is not based on substance which was not based on facts and which would not stand up in any court of law."

"This report has no basis in law. This report was the opinion of one man," he added.

Speaking later on RTÉ, Mr Lowry claimed he did "nothing improper" when he was a minister and had not interfered in any process "unduly".

"Moriarty got it so wrong on issues in the past that the credibility of his report is in question," he said. "His final report is blatantly and disgracefully wrong in its opinions."

The findings of the Moriarty tribunal have also been rejected by Mr O'Brien who yesterday said he stood over his evidence given to the tribunal that he had not given "one red cent" to Mr Lowry.

Elsewhere, the consultant who advised the Department of Transport, Energy and Communications on the awarding of the mobile phone licence also disputed the tribunal's findings.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Prof Michael Andersen of Andersen Management International, who was the last person to give evidence to the tribunal late last year, said he was surprised at the description of the process in the report.

He also said the report contained a number of factual errors.