Lowry claims contradict own evidence

Confirmation from Independent TD Michael Lowry that he paid up to £250,000 (€285,000) to a land agent directly contradicts evidence he supplied to the Moriarty Tribunal.

Mr Lowry told the tribunal he only ever agreed a £65,000 settlement — and that it related to Vineacre Ltd, an English property firm in which he had a 50% share. However, in a statement last night, following the publication of transcripts from a taped conversation between Mr Lowry and the agent Kevin Phelan, he gave a different version.

This statement said another payment, referred to in a Sunday Independent article, was made on his behalf by his Irish firm, Garuda Limited. “That transaction was properly recorded and accounted for in the records and accounts of Garuda Limited,” said the statement. “The payment referred to is fully tax compliant… I never had any direct or indirect shareholding or beneficial interest in Doncaster Rovers or its associated companies.”

In a phonecall recorded in Sept 2004, Mr Lowry told Mr Phelan, who is based in Omagh, a payment he made, of between £200,000 and £250,000, was “not put through my books”.

He also said if information got out about the arrangement, which related to undeclared property in Wigan, he would be “fucked”.

Mr Lowry said he feared the transaction would link him to Denis O’Brien’s Doncaster Rovers project, in which Mr Phelan is also involved.

“Now, the 200 — the 250 — that I gave you, I paid that directly. I never put that through my books or my account or anything. Nobody’s going to fucking get it,” said Mr Lowry.

During the call, he said the money was used to buy Mr Phelan out of his Wigan investment, which was being run through Vineacre.

“What that 250 is for is for the sale of fucking Vineacre or Vineacre shares, because if you say the opposite, if you say the other, then I’m fucking, looks as if I had a beneficial interest in fucking Doncaster, which I hadn’t,” he said.

Mr Lowry’s residual interest in the Wigan land is the subject of an ethics probe by the Standards in Public Office Commission.

The recorded conversation happened over two years before Mr Lowry gave Moriarty Tribunal evidence detailing the fees he negotiated with Mr Phelan. After giving this testimony in 2007, Mr Lowry had his solicitors write to the tribunal and put it on record that he, and his company in Wigan (Vineacre), had only ever paid £65,000 to Mr Phelan.

“[The £65,000] was the only payments made to Kevin Phelan for projects in respect of which Mr Lowry had an involvement,” the letter to the tribunal said.

Ultimately the tribunal found the £65,000 paid to Mr Phelan was orchestrated by Mr Lowry “for the principal purpose of presenting a contrived falsehood to the tribunal”.

It said Mr Lowry paid the money and this led to the altering of evidence that originally linked him to the Doncaster Rovers project.

Mr Lowry denied this was the case and said he wanted to pay off Mr Phelan to ensure he had no future claim to his project in Wigan.

Independent TD John Halligan demanded that Mr Lowry address the Dáil to answer allegations about his finances. He said Mr Lowry had “already given a half- hour statement to the Dáil before and these claims seems to counter some of what he said then”.

Cork North West TD Michael Moynihan of Fianna Fáil urged Mr Lowry to clarify the issues and called for the recording to be forwarded to Judge Moriarty for examination.