Michael Lowry to foot bill of tax trial

Independent TD Michael Lowry will have to foot the legal bill for the four days of a High Court hearing in which he failed to stop his trial on mainly tax-related charges.

Last February, Mr Justice Seamus Noonan rejected his judicial review challenge to his trial. He found Mr Lowry had “conspicuously declined” to engage with the €372,000 transaction of 2002 at the heart of the case.

He also disagreed with Mr Lowry’s argument a 2015 Appeal Commissioners determination of his tax appeal was a “vindication” of him in light of which continuation of the tax prosecution was oppressive.