Lowry: I’ll hold on to UK site until it realises full value

Shamed former minister Michael Lowry has admitted owning undeclared land in England and said he is prepared to sit on the speculative investment until it realises its full value.

The Independent TD is obliged to declare to the Oireachtas an interest in any land worth over €13,000.

However, he said his 50% stake in a 25-acre site alongside the main motorway junction outside Wigan is currently “valueless”.

The site is the focus of a council-driven rezoning proposal to turn it and nearby sites into an employment park for 4,700 workers.

However, Mr Lowry said his portion might not be included in the scheme for 10 or 15 years and his solicitor had advised him it was unlikely to find its way into the current development plans.

Until its planning designation was changed, Mr Lowry said he considered the property to be worthless and would not declare his interest to the Oireachtas.

“If it was included in a development plan, which will happen next year or the year after, then it would have a value and then I would have to be declaring it in my interests,” he told Tipp FM. “But as it stands at the moment I have no obligation whatsoever.”

Seamus Martin of Tipp FM asked Mr Lowry why he invested in the land if it had no value.

The former Fine Gael TD said it “looked like a good idea at the time and maybe it still will be a good idea”.

Mr Lowry revealed he and his business partner, Thurles haulier Liam Carroll, had considered employing architects and agents to promote the site last year but ultimately decided it would be too expensive. They still retain an agent in northern England who is available to promote the property.

Mr Lowry said that, in the 11 years he owned the land at Wigan, he has not been approached by anybody interested in developing it.

The owners of the land surrounding his holding on three sides have written to the council and said they were approached by = “national developers”[/url] interested in delivering employment on the lands.

Mr Lowry also confirmed that, in 2001, he and Mr Carroll purchased options to buy nearby tracts of land but they were priced out of the market when these positions expired and were up for renewal.

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