Lowry wants state to pay €7m legal bill

DISGRACED former minister Michael Lowry insists taxpayers must foot his €7 million legal bill for the Moriarty Tribunal.

The independent Tipperary TD, who suffered the humiliation of having a Dáil censure motion passed against him after the tribunal found he had helped tycoon Denis O’Brien secure the lucrative second mobile phone license while communications minister, claims he is a “soft target” who has been publicly punished “every day for the past 15 years”.

The damning verdict of the Moriarty probe that Mr Lowry engaged in a “profoundly corrupt act” with businessman Ben Dunne regarding a scheme to fix rents led for calls from across the political spectrum for the TD to resign his Dáil seat.