Lowry faces grilling over cover-up allegations

FORMER Fine Gael Minister Michael Lowry will be grilled today over alleged attempts to cover-up his role in a property deal linked to business tycoon Denis O'Brien.

Moriarty Tribunal lawyers believe they have uncovered false documents aimed at concealing Mr Lowry’s link to a £445,000 property transaction.

The development means key evidence heard by the tribunal will have to be revisited and may set back its investigations by anything up to a year.

A new set of letters emerged publicly yesterday detailing the transaction in which Mr Lowry is mentioned as the intended owner of the property.

But a set of almost identical letters the tribunal was originally given by the solicitor handling the deal contain no reference to Mr Lowry.

Former Esat boss Denis O’Brien has also been linked to the British property deal because some of the money used as a deposit came from one of his bank accounts.

The British-based solicitor who wrote the different letters, Christopher Vaughan, has refused more than 20 requests to answer questions before the tribunal.

The letters containing Mr Lowry’s name were handed over by Irish Times journalist Colm Keena earlier this year.

But Mr Vaughan insists they were draft copies and may have been “maliciously” leaked.

Tribunal lawyer Jerry Healy SC said they would have to consider whether the versions containing the Tipperary TD’s name were a deliberate attempt to conceal Mr Lowry’s true role in the Cheadle property transaction.

Recalled to the witness box from a family holiday, Denis O’Brien said yesterday he knew nothing of the controversial property deal .

His former financial adviser Aidan Phelan paid some of the deposit on the Cheadle property using money which originated in a Denis O’Brien bank account.

But Mr O’Brien said this money was an advance of fees due to his former finance adviser and he had no knowledge of what it had been used for.

Speaking outside the tribunal hearing afterwards, a furious Mr O’Brien, who had been on a family holiday, said it was an “understatement” to say he was angry at having been brought before the tribunal.

However, he said he was glad the Moriarty Tribunal has decided to commence a public investigation into the awarding of the country’s second mobile phone licence.

The licence was awarded to Mr O’Brien’s Esat in 1995 by the Government when Mr Lowry was Communications Minister.

Both men have rejected any suggestion that anything untoward occurred in the awarding of the contract.