Lowry firm’s profits soar

THE refrigeration company owned by former Fine Gael minister Michael Lowry, Garuda, saw profits rise by more than 50% last year.

Accounts just filed for Garuda show pre-tax profits for the year to end December 2004 rose to €91,385.

No turnover figure for the company was disclosed in the accounts.

Garuda, which installs and maintains large refrigeration systems, recorded a fall in gross profits, but lower administration costs helped bottom line earnings increase.

The company had retained profits of nearly €400,000, but did not pay out a dividend to the Tipperary North TD.

The number of people employed by the firm fell by three to 12, cutting the wage bill €4,000 to almost €520,000.

No figures for directors’ fees were given on the grounds that “their disclosure would be seriously prejudicial to the interests of the company”.

As part of the McCracken Tribunal - set up to examine payments to Mr Lowry and former Taoiseach Charles Haughey - Garuda may face a potential tax liability, according to the firm’s auditors, BBT.

It prepared Garuda’a accounts on a going concern basis, but this depended on financing becoming available.

“The scope of our audit was limited in that there was no satisfactory audit procedures that we could adopt to determine the potential liability arising out of the tribunal of inquiry and the tax assessment raised in May 2002,” the auditors noted.

Mr Lowry told the auditors that any liability would be financed through the company’s resources.

The Moriarty Tribunal is currently examining whether Mr Lowry, as the then communications minister in the rainbow coalition in 1995, influenced the awarding of the second mobile phone licence to Esat Digifone.