Lowry snub would deny constituents a voice, says Reilly

Denying Michael Lowry the right to meet ministers would deprive his constituents of a voice in parliament, James Reilly has said.

“That would not be right in my view,” the Health Minister added.

Dr Reilly was speaking after it emerged that he, too, had met with Mr Lowry last year despite the findings of the Moriarty Tribunal report.

The Irish Examiner revealed earlier this week that Environment Minister Phil Hogan had met with Mr Lowry and representatives of a Tipperary-based company on March 28 last year — just six days after the Moriarty Report had branded Mr Lowry corrupt.

It subsequently emerged that Finance Minister Michael Noonan had agreed to meet Mr Lowry and members of youth organisation Foróige last October, and that Dr Reilly had met with Mr Lowry and other Tipperary-based TDs about a local health service issue in November.

Dr Reilly defended that meeting yesterday, saying he had to acknowledge Mr Lowry’s right to represent his constituents.

“Michael Lowry received a third of the vote of the electorate of North Tipperary and I met with him along with Deputy Noel Coonan from Fine Gael and Minister Alan Kelly (of Labour) and a number of local people who were concerned about the future of a public nursing home, St Ursula’s, in Thurles,” Dr Reilly told RTE Radio.

“Now, I can’t refuse to meet public representatives. I try to meet all public representatives; they have an electoral mandate from their people. To do otherwise would be to deprive the people who voted for Michael Lowry of any voice at all in our parliament, and that would not be right in my view.”

Dr Reilly rejected suggestions that agreeing to such meetings rendered meaningless last year’s decision by the Dáil to censure Mr Lowry following the tribunal findings.

He pointed out that Fine Gael had not waited for the Moriarty Report to act against Mr Lowry, having forced him out of the party in the mid-1990s.

“Now, at the same time, he’s still an individual who has been elected by people and he has a right to represent those people, and they have a right to be represented.”

Dr Reilly also rejected suggestions that the meetings were embarrassing for Fine Gael.

“Not in the least. There’s a lot of people (who) would have lots of things to say about a number of other TDs who have recently been elected. Am I to refuse to meet them because of past issues that remain, shall we say, very much to the fore of a lot of people’s minds?

“We live in a democracy, people are elected democratically, and if there’s a meeting about an issue that concerns members of the parliament and they all seek to be at a meeting, I don’t think it would be right and proper for me to exclude them.”

Meanwhile, Mr Lowry’s son, Cllr Micheál Lowry, who is mayor of North Tipperary, said his father’s meeting with Mr Hogan was about trying to save jobs.

“If you remove Michael Lowry’s name from it, the focus of that meeting was on trying to save 34 jobs.

“If it happened in any other part of the country, the electorate would expect their public representative to do all in their power to ensure that those jobs were saved.

“It just so happens that when Michael Lowry’s name comes into it, it becomes a bigger issue.”