Oireachtas to respond to Lowry over land interests
Mr Lowry last night confirmed he was checking with “authorities” on whether he needed to amend his Dáil declaration after it emerged land in his name was omitted from the register of interests.
The Oireachtas committee on members’ interests said it would decide if the matter should be investigated.
The register of members’ interests states that Mr Lowry is a director of Abbeygreen Consulting Ltd, a company based in his constituency of North Tipperary.
A check of files in the Land Registry show Abbeygreen is the owner of land at Gortnahoe, near Two-Mile Borris, in Co Tipperary. The land, a little less than 11 acres, has a mortgage recorded against it with Irish Nationwide Building Society, which is now part of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation and is essentially state-owned.
The land is only a few miles from where Mr Lowry has recently been involved in promoting the development of a Las Vegas-style casino.
Mr Lowry’s declaration of interests does not mention any interests in the Abbeygreen lands.
Abbeygreen became the owner of the Tipperary land on May 9, 2011, two months after the Moriarty Report was published.
When contacted yesterday, the TD refused to answer questions on whether he was the owner or had interests in the land.
Mr Lowry said he had begun, as of yesterday, to check whether his declaration of interests needed to changed, as was permitted by the Oireachtas.
He refused to clarify who he had asked about possibly amending his declaration and said he had made inquiries with two “appropriate authorities”.
Chairman of the committee on members’ interests, Thomas Pringle, said: “At this point, there has been no complaint about Mr Lowry. At the moment, it’s not on the agenda. The committee can decide to initiate an investigation but in private.”
