Complaints body 'will consider' Moriarty

THE CHARTERED Accountants Regulatory Board has said its complaints’ committee will in time consider the second report of the Moriarty tribunal.

The committee will examine the report to ascertain whether it creates any issue for any member under the board’s disciplinary by-laws.

One of the accountants who features heavily in the report is Denis O’Connor, one of three partners in the Dublin accountancy firm of Brophy Butler Thornton.

Mr O’Connor is not a member of Chartered Accountants Ireland but his firm is and in that context he may be an affiliated member, a board spokesman said. The board overviews disciplinary issues for members.

Mr O’Connor was not available for comment and requests for a comment from the firm yesterday and on Tuesday were met with no response. It is not clear what accountancy body he belongs to as the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and the Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Ireland said he was not a member.

Mr Justice Moriarty said in his report he was satisfied that Mr O’Connor, who works on the accounts of Michael Lowry and his firms, knew of the existence of documents that appeared to link the politician with a property deal in Doncaster which businessman Denis O’Brien had said was his.

Mr O’Connor, the judge said, was involved in an exercise aimed at preventing this information coming to the attention of the tribunal, including negotiating payments to Omagh-based Kevin Phelan, who had copies of the documents. He said the accountant had “abused” the professional relationship he developed with the tribunal and “deliberately provided false responses and statements” to it in the belief he would not be found out. His refusal to later acknowledge what he had done was “regrettable and reprehensible”, the judge said.