Creighton calls for Michael Lowry to be kept out of next government

Renua Ireland leader Lucinda Creighton has called on

Taoiseach Enda Kenny to give a clear commitment that Independent TD Michael Lowry will not form part of the next government if re-elected.

Ms Creighton was speaking as she introduced her private member’s Electoral (Amendment) (Moriarty Tribunal) Bill. This would, if accepted, “implement all the recommendations of the Moriarty tribunal, which despite promises to the contrary, unfortunately have not been implemented by this Government”.

Mr Kenny was in the Dáil chamber as she introduced the Bill, but left before she finished speaking.

The Dublin South East TD said it was nearly five years since the publication of Mr Justice Michael Moriarty’s report on payments to politicians, which included an investigation into the awarding of a mobile phone licence.

The report found “it is beyond doubt that Deputy Michael Lowry imparted substantial information to Denis O’Brien which was of ‘significant value and assistance to him in securing the licence’,” she quoted.

There had been a Garda investigation for more than three years following the tribunal’s findings of suspected criminality in payments to politicians.

“This, extraordinarily, has not yet led to an investigation file being sent to the DPP,” Ms Creighton said. “No one has been charged and there have been zero consequences for two of the key individuals against whom adverse findings were made.”

She said Mr O’Brien accumulated a vast amount of wealth in the wake of the granting of the mobile phone licence, and this had brought him enormous access and influence.

Not shied away

She said “no agency of this State, nor a State bank, has shied away from dealing with the man who the Moriarty tribunal found had transferred cash and benefits worth more than €1 million to then minister and now deputy Michael Lowry, who, it is said, helped O’Brien to secure the mobile phone licence”.

Ms Creighton said Mr O’Brien had awarded Mr Lowry’s company the contract for refrigeration maintenance for his Topaz company, reportedly worth more than €1 million a year to Mr Lowry’s business.

When Ceann Comhairle Sean Barrett intervened to say the deputy could not make allegations like that, Ms Creighton said they were not allegations, they were facts.

Mr Barrett said he was not allowing the deputy to “have a go or a pop at individuals who are not here to answer or until we know the full facts”.