After his meteoric riser and fall, can Michael Lowry rise again?

THE political, financial and personal battering of Michael Lowry is not over. He is down even further now, but still not out.

A meteoric political rise has been matched by an even faster descent. Once he was described as a successful businessman, skilled political operator and high-profile Minister: these days the word "former" usually precedes at least two of these epithets.

His political career stumbled in the summer of 1995 during the cosy cartels/Tuffy letters affair. It went on to the ropes last November when he was forced to resign as a Minister following revelations that Ben Dunne had paid for a £200,000 extension to his house. It appeared to be being counted out in January when he was asked to resign as a trustee of Fine Gael.

And, to stretch a metaphor, his effective de-selection as a party candidate by Mr Bruton ("my best friend, best friend forever"), seems like a final kick as he lies prone on the floor.

But, in fact, he is still standing. He is still a TD and will turn just 43 next Thursday. Should he run as an independent candidate in the forthcoming general election, his chances of re-election are good. If he emerges from the forthcoming tribunal of inquiry into the Dunnes Stores payments without much additional political damage, if his tax affairs become regularised and memories of the circumstances of his fall fade, he may yet hope to be readmitted to the party.

Michael Lowry's fall from the high moral ground has been spectacular. Gone are the days when he put himself forward as a sort of caped crusader against corruption and inefficiency, heading a Government department responsible for 10 major commercial semi-state companies that doled out some £2,000 million worth of contracts annually.

THE confident, young novice Minister was determined to make his mark. He attacked an alleged "cosy cartel" of Fianna Fail businessmen who were milking State companies, and suggested he was under surveillance. He promised a "clean-up" of the semi-state sector, but found himself embroiled in controversy early in his ministry.

The 1995 silly season "cosy cartel" allegations remained unproven, and he escaped from the controversy only through the bizarre Tuffy letters episode.

Controversy erupted at regular intervals afterwards. He advised the Government to remove Eddie O'Connor as Bord na Mona chairman because of the controversy over his remuneration package. The granting of a mobile phone licence to Esat sparked bitter complaint from failed licence applicants. His robust defence of the Luas light rail plans, regulation of phone charges and row over rural post offices all kept him in the news.

The end of all that was dramatic and brutal. Last November he was chairing a closed session of European telecommunications ministers in Brussels when a list of questions from the journalist Sam Smyth was handed to him. He was hammering out a deal on European postal liberalisation and an agreement to keep paedophile material off the Internet when the questions brought his mind back to Tipperary.

Who had paid for the £207,819 extension to his house in Holycross? Was it Dunnes Stores? Was this a gift or payment in kind for services rendered?

As he pondered the questions news came from Ireland of a helicopter containing a photographer swooping low over the Holycross house. This was serious. The cosy cartels/Tuffy episode had been embarrassing, but this was a crisis. He sought time to explain, but his "best friend, best friend forever" was also a Taoiseach who smelled trouble. Lowry the Minister was gone within two days. Lowry the Fine Gael TD went this week.

AS his career went up in flames, Michael Lowry remained remarkably composed in public. He had a brief emotional moment as he spoke to reporters outside Government Buildings after he resigned from Cabinet. But even then he went without a hint of complaint about how the party and Taoiseach - whose fortunes he had contributed to immensely - was treating him.

He knew he had to go grace fully if anything was to be salvaged for the future. His agreement not to stand as a Fine Gael candidate in the next election smacks of the same recognition of hard reality.

He could have sought and got the local Fine Gael nomination, thus creating a nasty confrontation between the local party organisation and the leadership who would refuse to ratify him. In agreeing to be pushed out, he has avoided rancour and made a future rehabilitation seem possible. He was left with very few political cards, but played them well.

He talks now of consulting his family, friends and loyal supporters before deciding what to do next. Many see this as recognised political code for saying he is in the lead-up to an announcement of an independent candidature. Political recovery from such a devastating period will be a massive task, but he defied gravity in his rise to political and business success in the first place.

Straight after leaving Thurles CBS he was employed by the local refrigeration company of Mr Matt Butler as an apprentice engineer. He worked on his engineering skills and natural sales ability, ending up as engineer and sales director in the company. Butler Refrigeration began to do a large volume of work with Dunnes Stores.

In 1987 he was elected to the Dail. In 1988 he founded his own company, Streamline Enterprises, which won the Dunnes Stores business.

The same year he began chairing a committee to tackle the GAA's huge debt generated by Semple Stadium in Thurles. The debt was obliterated over four years.

His move to the Fine Gael inner circle came in 1992. That year he won the chairmanship of the parliamentary party. The following year the fund-raising, skills displayed in Tipperary were sought by John Bruton, who appointed him chairman of the party's trustees and director of finance. In 1994 he was centrally involved in negotiating the Rainbow Coalition's Programme for Government and became a Cabinet Minister.

As he got into his State car for the last time outside Government Buildings on November 30th he managed a quip to reporters in an attempt to mask his despondency: "I've played three rounds of golf in four years. I might even get good at golf this time." It appears that he doesn't intend retiring to the links just yet.