Lowry to face questions over links to O'Brien

The former Fine Gael minister Mr Michael Lowry is to return to the witness box next Tuesday. He is to be questioned on financial dealings linked to him and to businessman Mr Denis O'Brien.

Yesterday, Mr O'Brien said he could see no connection between him and Mr Lowry and the matters being investigated by the tribunal.

The subjects are: a $50,000 donation to Fine Gael; two property transactions in the UK; a house in Spain; and a conversation Mr O'Brien had with Mr Barry Maloney about making two £100,000 payments.

Mr O'Brien said he would welcome an investigation by the tribunal into the second mobile phone licence competition in 1995. "We won the licence fair and square," he said.

Asked if he would be concerned if he had learned in March 1999 that £300,000 sterling he was paying to his accountant, Mr Aidan Phelan, was going straight from his, Mr O'Brien's account, to the client account of an English solicitor organising a property transaction involving Mr Lowry, Mr O'Brien said no.

Mr O'Brien said he didn't know about the matter at the time but that if it was happening it was not illegal. "Mr Lowry made a lot of mistakes in his political career but people shouldn't disown him," he said.

The deal involved a property in Mansfield which is still registered in the name of Mr Lowry. The solicitor, Mr Christopher Vaughan, worked for Mr O'Brien on the purchase of the Doncaster Rovers grounds in the UK. Mr Vaughan, who has refused to attend the tribunal, was also engaged in a property transaction in Cheadle, again involving Mr Phelan and Mr Lowry. Mr O'Brien said he knew nothing of this transaction.

He said he was very angry when, during a holiday in the Alps with his family in March 2001, he was told by Investec Bank executive, Mr Michael Tunny, that the bank believed he was behind a £400,000 sterling loan to Mr Lowry in relation to the Cheadle transaction.

Mr O'Brien said he was so annoyed he gave Mr Tunny a loan of his airplane to go straight back to Dublin to sort the matter out. "I said, 'Get to the bottom of this'."

Mr O'Brien said he had nothing to do with the loan and was very anxious that this be cleared up. The matter was referred by the bank to the Central Bank and subsequently to the tribunal.

Asked about internal bank memos which recorded Mr Phelan saying Mr O'Brien was behind the loan, Mr O'Brien said banks sometimes "put file notes into their files that suit their position".

The bank "was having difficulty with this and was obviously trying to get its files right".

Mr O'Brien was asked about the purchase of a house in Spain from the late Mr David Austin in 1996. The money from the sale was later transferred to an offshore account belonging to Mr Lowry. Mr O'Brien said he didn't know the money he gave to Mr Austin was going to be lent to Mr Lowry by Mr Austin.

The money went from an Isle of Man account belonging to Mr O'Brien to a Jersey account belonging to Mr Austin and from there to an Isle of Man account belonging to Mr Lowry.

Mr John Coughlan SC, for the tribunal, asked if Mr O'Brien believed it was just "coincidence or bad luck" that so many transactions had occurred which linked him to Mr Lowry.

Mr O'Brien said he hoped the tribunal chairman would not look at coincidence or bad luck but would decide matters on the basis of evidence.

He said he hoped he would be seen as having been a co-operative witness.

The Moriarty tribunal is a follow-on tribunal arising from a report by the McCracken tribunal. It is investigating payments to former Taoiseach Mr Charles J. Haughey and former Fine Gael minister Mr Michael Lowry.

The tribunal resumes next Tuesday.