The clandestine manner in which payments to the former Fine Gael minister, Mr Michael Lowry, were made would inevitably give rise to suggestions that there was a hidden motive involved, according to Mr
Denis McCullough, counsel for the tribunal. He said it was "extremely unwise" for any public representative to place himself in such a position of vulnerability.
In his submission to the Mr Justice McCracken, tribunal chairman,
Mr McCullough said that while he accepted there was no "improper"
political motivation in the payments to Mr Lowry, in allowing his business relationship with Mr Ben Dunne to be dealt with in the way he did he "clearly rendered himself very vulnerable to any potential pressure that Mr Dunne might have chosen to bring to bear on him".
Mr Lowry allowed himself to become totally committed financially to Mr Dunne and allowed irregular methods of payments to be made to him.
While the motive for allowing payments to be made in that way had more to do with Mr Lowry's financial situation than anything else,
"the circumstances of the payments were certainly irregular and inconsistent, to say the least, with good business or accounting practice".
Mr McCullough said that it was "extremely unwise for a public representative to place himself in such a position of vulnerability"
and to find himself in a situation where his financial affairs could not bear public scrutiny "without considerable embarrassment to him".
By not disclosing his business relationship with Mr Dunne to the
Taoiseach and his party colleagues when he became minister, Mr Lowry made himself again "liable to subsequent compromise".
Mr McCullough said the Ethics in Public Office Act and the
Electoral Act might mitigate against situations like that of Mr
Lowry's arising in the future but contributions by business to political parties and politicians were likely to continue.
He recommended that some form of disclosure or register of payments should be introduced to avoid clandestine payments with all the connotations such payments give rise to.
"Inevitably all of this depends on the integrity and honesty of the individual members of the Oireachtas," he said, adding that "we must assume that the vast majority of people in political life in
Ireland would in fact make fair and open declarations."