Lowry says he is facing £1.5m bill for costs of five inquiries

Involvement in five investigations has cost the former Fine Gael minister Mr Michael Lowry almost £1.5 million over the past six years, he told the Moriarty tribunal yesterday.

Mr Lowry said he had been involved in the Buchanan inquiry; the McCracken tribunal; Minister Harney's investigation of his Garuda company; the Revenue Commissioners as well as the Moriarty tribunal.

"My accountant has estimated that I, on a personal level, have accrued costs to me and my company of £1,436,000," he said.

"I have had five different levels of investigation and interrogation over that six years."

Yesterday at the tribunal, Mr Lowry was questioned about his involvement in a property transaction in Mansfield, England.

Mr Lowry said he first heard about the property from Mr Kevin Phelan, a businessman based in Northern Ireland who acts for Irish investors buying property in Britain.

Mr Lowry became the initial investor in the property, investing £25,000 to secure the deal. He said it was intended that Mr Kevin Phelan would find other investors to fund the remaining 90 per cent of the £250,000 sterling deal.

However, the only other investor was Mr Aidan Phelan, an accountant and former financial adviser to Mr Denis O'Brien. (Mr Aidan Phelan is no relation to Mr Kevin Phelan.)

Mr Jerry Healy SC, for the tribunal, said the money provided by Mr Aidan Phelan came from an account of Mr Denis O'Brien's in Credit Suisse First Boston.

Mr Healy questioned Mr Lowry about a joint venture agreement, signed by Mr Aidan Phelan and Mr Lowry in April 1999. It stated that Mr Lowry had a 10 per cent share in the property while Mr Phelan had a 90 per cent share. Mr Lowry said his 10 per cent share was subject to a performance related bonus. Mr Healy put it to Mr Lowry that the agreement seemed to be "skewed" against him because he would get extra money only if Mr Aidan Phelan agreed to it. Mr Lowry disagreed.

Mr Healy asked if the terms of the agreement might not give rise to unfavourable or negative interpretations.

"Were you not vulnerable in the sense that as a public representative, you were leaving it up to somebody else, in this case somebody who had an association with other individuals which was being negatively commented on in the press already in relation to you, as going to decide how much you were going to get? Was that an unwise thing to do?"

Mr Lowry said he had no difficulty in dealing with Mr Aidan Phelan following media controversy after Mr Phelan provided him with a free mobile phone two years earlier.

"I feel totally free to conduct legitimate commercial transactions with Aidan Phelan or with anybody else in Ireland associated with Denis O'Brien," he said.

Mr Lowry insisted that he had a "clear conscience" in relations to any dealings he had with Mr O'Brien during his time as a minister.

Letters sent from Mr Kevin Phelan to Mr Lowry were shown to the tribunal. Mr Healy said there was no suggestion of other investors in the Mansfield property in any of the letters and put it to Mr Lowry that Mr Aidan Phelan had "rescued" him by coming on board the property deal.

"Would you agree with my view of you bringing very little to this. If Aidan Phelan didn't come in with £200,000 in March of 1999, if he didn't come to the rescue, you were a goner," Mr Healy said.

Mr Lowry rejected Mr Healy's suggestion. "Aidan Phelan was presented with a commercial opportunity. He saw value in that opportunity." Mr Lowry returns to the witness stand today.