Mick Clifford: Decision not to prosecute gives Michael Lowry chance to play the victim

The decision by the DPP not to bring charges against the Independent TD from Tipperary over the findings from the Moriarty Tribunal reflects the high standard of proof required

Independent TD Michael Lowry said the tribunal’s 2011 report was 'flawed' and stated that its findings against him had allowed him be subjected to 'repeated insults, smears and false allegations'. File picture: Brian Lawless/PA

Michael Lowry is a dab hand at presenting as a victim. He can perfect that hangdog look that is the preserve of those who feel hounded by dark elements of the State or society at large. He gives good injured air.

On Tuesday night he was wallowing in his victimhood. He released a statement confirming he had been informed by the DPP that he will not face criminal charges in relation to the findings of the Moriarty Tribunal.

He described the tribunal’s 2011 report as “flawed” and stated that its findings against him had allowed him be subjected to “repeated insults, smears and false allegations”. Truly, any citizen blackguarded and hounded in this manner is a victim of gigantic proportions.

The tribunal had examined whether he had assisted Denis O’Brien to win the most lucrative contract awarded by the State, the second mobile phone licence, in 1995. Lowry was the minister for industry at the time. 

The tribunal also examined payments made to Lowry by Ben Dunne and whether Lowry did anything in return.

Overseen by Judge Michael Moriarty, the tribunal sat for an excruciating 13 years. It was also detailed to examine the £8m received by Charlie Haughey from assorted business people during a career when he presented as a servant of the public.

Lowry and O’Brien have consistently disputed the findings of the tribunal but have not initiated any legal challenge. Here are some of the findings pertaining to the Tipperary TD.

It found that it was “beyond doubt” that Lowry had imparted substantive information to O’Brien which was “of significant value and assistance to him in securing the licence”.

It also delved into payment made from O’Brien to Lowry totalling £447,000 and support for a £420,000 loan. Lowry’s interactions with O’Brien combined with his role of minister overseeing the awarding of the licence was “disgraceful and insidious”, the tribunal found. 

Both men dispute all of this. 

Could a judge and an experienced legal team get everything so wrong? We will never know because the findings were not challenged.

Michael Lowry at the funeral of Ben Dunne in 2023. The Moriarty Tribunal had examined payments made to Lowry by Ben Dunne and whether Lowry did anything in return. File picture: Niall Carson/PA

While he was a minister, Lowry had a business relationship with Ben Dunne and Dunnes Stores, to whom he supplied refrigeration products. 

Ben Dunne paid for an extension to Lowry’s home and provided him with other payments totalling close to €500,000.

The tribunal found that Lowry made efforts, in his ministerial role, to influence a rent review on a building which was part-owned by Dunne and housed what was Telecom Eireann. 

This, Moriarty ruled, “was profoundly corrupt, to a degree that was nothing short of breathtaking”.

Lowry reaction

In his statement this week, Lowry had this to say about Moriarty.

"Despite the unfair and unfounded opinions of the Moriarty Report, there are no charges being brought against me arising from the award of the licence; no charge of corruption or misfeasance in public office; no charges of personal gain or bribery on my part."

Casting the report as an “opinion” rather than rooted in fact has been a repeated cry from Lowry. 

In reality, the judge offered opinions that were based on facts well established by the tribunal.

For instance, it found factually that Lowry, in his ministerial role, had attempted to intervene on behalf of his benefactor Dunne. 

The judge’s opinion on that is that was “profoundly corrupt”.

The only alternative opinion that could be offered is that Lowry would attempt to get a better deal for anybody who had a relationship with a State company over which he had ministerial control, irrespective of whether that person was paying him wads of cash. 

The current leaders of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael  had no problem with Lowry's central role in the formation of the current government in January of last year.

Having such an approach to public money sounds, well, just as profoundly corrupt.

Meanwhile, back on Planet Lowry this week, the decision of the DPP not to prosecute had him blowing up his victimhood like a party balloon.

In reality, any prosecution would have been extremely difficult. For one thing the standard of proof required is higher than in a fact-finding exercise like a tribunal.

There is also the problem that the events at the centre of this occurred over 30 years ago. 

And if a tribunal of inquiry took so long to investigate, could any jury be expected to both persevere and digest the evidence to an extent that they would be able to determine guilt or innocence?

Lowry, however, couldn’t leave well enough alone. He had to use the occasion to once again wail that he was just a simple lad whom so many, in the judiciary, the legal business, the media, in politics, were out to do down for some unspecified reason.

A victim convicted of a crime

His wailing this week echoed a similar declaration in 2016.

“Nobody understands unless you are in the position, if you’ve been harassed, chased and hounded by various institutions of the State. 

"It’s only when you are in that position, and fortunately I had the strength, I had the courage and I had the conviction and the reason I had was very simple. I knew in my heart and my head that I didn’t do the kind of wrongs . . . portrayed.” 

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This self-declared courageous man was speaking there on the occasion of his conviction for tax offences at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. His company was fined €25,000 and he was disqualified from acting as a company director for three years. 

A more serious charge was dropped during the trial and the jury failed to reach verdicts on other charges.

The presiding judge Martin Nolan said the offences did not warrant a custodial sentence. Lowry appears to have taken this decision as some form of vindication. 

Once more a victim, even when he was convicted of a crime.

Despite being forced out of the cabinet in 1997 when his activities were first publicised, he has been re-elected by the people of Tipperary at every election since. That is their right. 

Maybe they also consider him a victim or maybe they just don’t care as long as he delivers on a constituency basis.

The current leaders of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael just don’t care. They had no problem with his central role in the formation of the current government in January of last year.

Whether people care or not about low standards in high places is their own business. But let’s not have the past of one of the most controversial figures ever to sit at a cabinet rewritten simply because of the passage of time. 

Lowry is no victim, irrespective of how well he plays the role.