North Tipperary Independent TD Michael Lowry is seeking Dáil time to respond to allegations made about him by Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty. Deputy Lowry describes the comments as a “smear” against him.
The Sinn Fein Deputy Leader shared information about Deputy Lowry’s involvement in a deal relating to Doncaster Football club and other issues investigated by the Moriarty Tribunal which was set up in 1997 to investigate payments made to former Taoiseach Charlie Haughey and Michael Lowry – a Fine Gael Minister in the Government at the time. The Tribunal finalised it’s report in 2011 and the then Taoiseach Enda Kenny asked Gardaí to examine the report to investigate if any crimes had taken place. Earlier this month it emerged that An Garda Siochana has sent a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions(DPP) – it remains to be seen if the DPP will take action based on the file contents.
The TD is at the centre of a major Dáil dispute about whether he can use Opposition time in the Dáil along with other TDs in the Regional Independent Group(RIG) after negotiating the Programme for Government, securing a number of Minister of State positions and committing to support the Government in every vote.
A special Dáil committee has been set up to examine Technical Groups and this issue is to be resolved by February 5th when the Dáil returns.
Deputy Lowry rejects the findings of the Moriarty Tribunal as “factually wrong and deliberately misleading”, while businessman Denis O’Brien describes the report as fundamentally flawed and insists he never made any payment to Mr Lowry.