INDEPENDENT TD Michael Lowry has warned supporters in his Tipperary North constituency that the report of the Moriarty tribunal’s investigations, which are expected to conclude this year, is unlikely to “praise” him.
Speaking at a rally in the Ragg, near Thurles on Saturday night attended by 1,000 people to mark 21 years in the Dáil, Mr Lowry said he has been “subjected to unrelenting, sustained, extensive investigation by several agencies” over 12 years.
“The pressure has been intense. I am glad it is coming to an end,” he said. “After all the time and massive legal expense involved, I don’t expect he will praise me. The tribunal has to justify the outlandish legal cost by publishing a critical report.”
The tribunal has inquired into Mr Lowry’s involvement in the awarding of the second mobile telephone licence to businessman, Denis O’Brien and subsequent business links between the two.
Preparing supporters for stinging criticism whenever the tribunal does report, Mr Lowry said: “When this report is published, I ask you to remember that politics and democracy are about elections. Elections are the primary means of accounting to the public.”
He told the gathering: “You and I have travelled a long road together. Our journey together has been peppered with expectation and jubilation, combined with occasional disappointment and setback.
“At times on our path together we were rattled, feeling down, but never counted out. We weathered storms together because we held our pride, our belief, our passion. We had the conviction to tread where few would have had the courage to go, and we succeeded.
“When the sharks were circling it was your understanding, your encouragement, your kindness and your generosity of spirit that kept me going. That is what gave me the heart to defy and overcome the odds.
“My supporters have been brave and immensely strong. You never wavered in your support, never faltered in a campaign, never lost faith in me,” he went on. He said his “approach and attitude” to life has been moulded by the “values, that sense of community, that sense of parish and place, that empathy with neighbour” found in his Holycross/Ballycahill home.
He said he entered politics “because I believed I could make a difference”, and he was satisfied “that I have made a modest contribution in a career which saw him hold office as minister for transport, energy and communications only to lose it in 1996 after it emerged that nearly £400,000 worth of renovations to his house had been paid for by businessman, Ben Dunne, while the McCracken tribunal report subsequently ruled that he had evaded tax.
He said being a TD “involves huge personal and family lifestyle sacrifice” and “despite what some people think, politics is no route to financial security or wealth”.
I have been talked about, whispered about, and my every action scrutinised, said Mr Lowry, who, along with fellow Independent, Jackie Healy-Rae, supports the Fianna Fáil-Green Government.
“It is for that reason that I have given conditional support to the present Government. I supported them because it presented the only opportunity to deliver to my constituency. I did it out of a sense of duty to those who elected me, even though it was not the most natural or comfortable decision for me to make,” he went on.