McDowell attacks Kenny’s US photo-op with O’Brien

Former Tánaiste Michael McDowell has criticised Enda Kenny for appearing in a photo-op in the company of businessman Denis O’Brien.

During a recent official visit to the US, Mr Kenny stood on the balcony of the New York Stock Exchange to ring the opening bell, with Mr O’Brien amongst the group of people surrounding him.

Mr McDowell said that if Mr Kenny had not already read the Moriarty Tribunal report, he should do so now — “slowly and carefully”.

“No Taoiseach with decent personal standards, which I still think Enda has, could have both carefully read the Moriarty Report and stood on the NYSE balcony rubbing shoulders with Mr O’Brien in the week that marked the anniversary of Moriarty and the week when Mahon was to be published,” said Mr McDowell, the former attorney general.

The Moriarty Report, published this time last year, found that former Fine Gael Communications Minister Michael Lowry had “securing the winning” of the state’s second mobile phone licence for Mr O’Brien.

In return, Mr O’Brien provided payments and benefits to Mr Lowry running into hundreds of thousands of pounds, according to the tribunal. Both Mr O’Brien and Mr Lowry continue to reject the tribunal’s findings.

But Mr McDowell suggested it was giving the wrong impression for the Taoiseach to appear in photo-ops with Mr O’Brien. He expressed the criticisms in an article in the Sunday Independent, part of the Independent News & Media group in which Mr O’Brien has a major stake.

But Mr O’Brien shot back in a statement questioning why Mr McDowell had not mentioned his own involvement in the Moriarty Tribunal.

Mr McDowell was retained as an independent counsel to the tribunal in 2010, an appointment that was challenged unsuccessfully by Mr O’Brien and fellow businessman Dermot Desmond in the High Court. The pair subsequently appealed the decision to the Supreme Court.

“This matter is the subject of legal proceedings before the Supreme Court. Mr McDowell declined to reveal his extensive involvement with the Moriarty Tribunal in [the Sunday Independent] article,” the statement said.

“It is abundantly clear that Mr McDowell deliberately withheld particularly relevant information about his various conflicts of interest because it would, once again, demolish his self-appointed portrayal of independence and objectivity.”

Mr Kenny, meanwhile, said he had “no hand, act or part” in the invitations issued to the NYSE event.