COMMENT from Mr Justice McCracken yesterday morning may be the best piece of news Mr Michael Lowry has heard for a long time. There is "no evidence he said, that Mr Lowry received money through Mr Ben Dunne in return for political favours.
Mr Lowry began his evidence to the tribunal with a simple objective. "I started with nothing," he said. "I now have nothing and I want to preserve my political integrity."
He put the core allegation against himself in much starker terms than did counsel for the tribunal. The innuendo was "that I was involved in political corruption ... The inference was that Ben Dunne constructed my house for political favours". there was "inference and innuendo and accusations" that he was involved in "political corruption and bribery".
Tribunal chairman Mr Justice McCracken echoed this, saying the issue was that Mr Lowry may have received money through Mr Dunne or Dunnes Stores for political favours. But he added: "To be quite clear, that issue is not really being pursued here because there is no evidence.
Mr Lowry put in a feisty performance under questioning yesterday. "The reason I have exposed myself to such humiliation and ridicule in the Dail and with this tribunal is because my integrity is all I have left, I have lost everything, but I will not allow a situation to continue where my political integrity is impugned."
Only two issues emerged which could have impugned his political integrity, and neither stuck. The case of the Ballyvolane potatoes was dealt with on Wednesday. The Dunnes Stores branch in Ballyvolane, Co Cork, was being prosecuted by the Department of Agriculture for selling rotten potatoes. Mr Lowry had made some phone calls about the case, having been contacted by an executive of Dunnes Stores.
But it is accepted now that Mr Lowry had merely sought information about the case, had not sought an adjournment or to have the case dropped, and that Dunnes Stores was convicted and fined.
The other matter related to granting urban renewal tax designation to a Mullingar site for a shopping centre in which Dunnes Stores was proposed as the anchor tenant. Mr Lowry had approached fellow Fine Gael deputy Mr Paul McGrath and questioned him as to why he, a Mullingar councillor, had opposed the designation.
But it became clear this week that Mr Lowry's approach to Mr McGrath followed a complaint from the developer and not from Dunnes Stores. It came after a decision had already been taken to grant designation to the site.
It was on foot of a complaint from the developer, who had been referred to Mr Lowry as party chairman by Mr Phil Hogan TD about the opposition to the designation that had come from the Fine Gael councillors. This was not an attempt to influence a decision as the decision had already been taken. It was merely a complaint, after the event.
Mr Lowry also disputes Mr McGrath's evidence that he had suggested that the fact that Mr Ben Dunne was a major contributor to Fine Gael should have some influence on how he viewed the Mullingar project.
No other matter has emerged. The tribunal contacted all Government Departments seeking details of representations made on behalf of Dunnes Stores by Oireachtas members. This produced no other allegation against Mr Lowry.
Whatever his transgressions in terms of non-payment of tax and the unorthodoxy of his business relationship with Dunnes Stores, Mr Lowry can feel happy that no allegation of corruption has stood up.
For two days he has told the tribunal how much he has lost in the last seven months. He lost his political position, he lost money. His political, financial, business and personal affairs have been scrutinised as nobody else's, he said.
His house in Holycross, Co Tipperary, is a tourist attraction, "particularly at weekends ... The reason I have exposed myself to such public ridicule and humiliation is that that is all I have left and I will not allow my political integrity to be impugned".
But he had difficulty yesterday explaining how what he called a "weasel word" had found its way into his statement to the Dail on December 20th. Mr Lowry introduced his statement then saying he intended to set the record straight and then proceeded to include the following paragraph -
"I never made any secret of the fact that Dunnes Stores had paid me for professional services by way of assistance towards my house. Secondly, if someone was trying to hide income, would they not be more likely to put it in, say, an offshore account? The last thing they would do is spend it in a very obvious structure of bricks and mortar for all the world to see."
Trouble is, Mr Lowry did have money in offshore accounts. Yesterday he denied that in his Dail statement he tried to convey the impression that he did not. His Dail statement had been prepared with the help of advisers, he said, and some "weasel words" had been inadvertently put into it.
He suggested that this was partly due to the trauma surrounding his resignation as a minister.