Mr Michael Lowry has denied at the Moriarty Tribunal any knowledge of discrepancies in letters that lawyers say could have been an attempt to hide his involvement in a controversial property deal.
Tribunal lawyers suggested the situation for Mr Lowry is "worse" now because of a failure by his former solicitor in Britain, Mr Christopher Vaughan, to explain the discrepancies in two different versions of a letter regarding the deal.
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Mr Michael Lowry
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Mr Lowry - the former Fine Gael chairman and Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications - said in his evidence this morning that he was "not happy" there were two version of the letters, but said he had "no knowledge" of their existence before his solicitors received copies from the tribunal in June.
He said he "was at a total loss to explain these letters" although he accepted that the "long form" of the letters, rather than the "short form" is the correct version.
At no point in his evidence did he accept that the letters had been purposefully altered, as lawyers for the tribunal have suggested.
He agreed, however, that the different versions of the letters were obviously written on different days but he wouldn’t speculate on the reason why.
In relation to the reference to a "Michael" in the long form of the letter, he said he presumed "the Michael refers to me but he was mistaken". When asked whether he therefore thought the solicitor in question was confused in the letter, he replied: "I simply don’t know".
The letters relate to the purchase of property in Cheadle and Mansfield, England, in which Mr Lowry is understood to have been involved.
The tribunal heard yesterday of letters supplied to it by a number of parties, including a solicitor and a consultant who acted for Mr Lowry. It is investigating whether these were altered to "avoid scrutiny" of Mr Lowry’s continued interest in the property.
Mr Lowry's purchase of the property has already been investigated by the tribunal, which heard evidence last year that the businessman Mr Denis O'Brien was linked to a loan used for the purchase.
Yesterday Mr O’Brien denied any involvement in the deal, either in providing a loan or in the transaction itself.
Mr Lowry will continue giving evidence this afternoon.