Lowry's accountant says unexplained monies are `immaterial'

The sum of unexplained monies paid to Mr Michael Lowry in the 10 years after he became a TD was "immaterial" in the context of his overall business dealings, the tribunal was told yesterday.

Mr Denis O'Connor, the TD's accountant, said that while Mr Lowry's financial affairs were conducted in "a haphazard manner", the vast majority of payments made in the period 1987 to 1996 - when he retired his ministerial post - could be traced to their source.

A detailed breakdown of payments was given to the tribunal, starting in 1987 when there were unidentified lodgments to Mr Lowry's 19 bank accounts amounting to £25,084.31. In the same year Mr Lowry received £16,097.47 in income which could not be matched to lodgments, producing an excess of unexplained lodgments to unexplained income of £8,986.84.

A similar excess of unidentified payments to unidentified income was registered in five other years: £3,714.42 in 1988, £3,498.74 in 1989, £17,036.73 in 1990, £11,265.62 in 1991 and £1,785.42 in 1993. An excess of unexplained income to unexplained payments was found in the remaining four years - £1,393.09 in 1992, £6,455.33 in 1994, £3,318 in 1995 and £3,517.44 in 1996.

The accountant agreed that the number of unidentified lodgments decreased sharply as Mr Lowry's political career took off. By the time he became chairman of the Fine Gael parliamentary party in 1992, the sum of unidentified lodgments had been reduced, in effect, to zero.