Dáil debates

Thursday, 23 January 2025

Taoiseach a Ainmniú (Atógáil) - Nomination of Taoiseach (Resumed)

 

2:45 am

Photo of Pearse DohertyPearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

So, what are we going to have and what are the priorities of this Government? There will be the most junior Ministers in the history of the State, the most super juniors in the history of the State, and they will be the best paid in the history of the State. Indeed, one of the first Bills that this Government is committed to bringing forward is to increase the allowances for these junior Ministers but it did not stop there. You tried to pull a political stroke of huge magnitude - that sham where you tried to create the impression that Independent TDs who negotiated the programme for Government, who signed up for it in good days and in bad days, got to sit in the Opposition benches and use Opposition time.

We cannot forget, can we, Micheál, who was behind this grubby deal of Government in the first instance? It was Deputy Michael Lowry, the star of the Moriarty tribunal, which found that Michael Lowry received over €1 million in direct payments and loan supports from Denis O'Brien, whom he was instrumental, as Minister, in delivering a State licensing contract to. Deputy Lowry, in the Tánaiste's words, "not only influenced, but delivered, the result", "engaged in a "cynical and venal abuse of office" and "he was involved in attempting to influence an arrangement that was "profoundly corrupt to a degree that was nothing short of breathtaking". Those are the Tánaiste's words. The Tánaiste called him a rogue politician; now he welcomes him back into the bosom of government. Deputy Lowry is a Government-supporting TD and the Tánaiste has pursued facilitating him with speaking time.

I wonder if Deputy Lowry will use that speaking time to come clean to set the record straight about his involvement in the Doncaster deal, which was the purchase of Doncaster football club funded by Denis O'Brien, a deal that the Deputy swore that the had no part in and was not to benefit from, which was completely and utterly false. Let me put some new information on the record of the House. Deputy Lowry had 57 meetings in relation to the Doncaster deal, including here in the Houses of the Oireachtas, with the organisers of the project and representatives of sport. He also had meetings in the boardroom of Doncaster football club itself. Will Deputy Lowry also explain why, in September and October of 2001, his accountant and his adviser paid the person putting the Doncaster deal together two bank drafts of Stg£32,500 and Stg£25,000 for his fee? When he is doing that, maybe he will explain why these payments came from an account in Gibraltar and where they originated from. These payments were never disclosed to the tribunal. Will Deputy Lowry use the Government's time to explain to this House and the public why he, on 15 March 2001, met with other key individuals in relation to this deal in Dublin?

The outcome of the meeting was the creation of a false narrative and fake new documents. These fake documents were given to the tribunal. Maybe he could explain why he, it is claimed, with two others who were central to these deals met on a rural farm in August 2002 to burn the original documents pertaining to these deals. He did so to make sure that the truth would never see the light of day. The information I am now telling the Tánaiste comes directly from one of the men present. Michael Lowry has been found by the tribunal. When Micheál Martin called on the Taoiseach at the time, Enda Kenny, to reopen the investigation into Michael Lowry it was because of some information that came from the same individual who has given me this information. How does he square the circle? Back then he wanted Michael Lowry investigated and now he wants him in the bosom of government. Now he allows Deputy Lowry to play the part of king maker. Now he hands him substantial influence over this Government. Maybe the next time Deputy Martin sits down with Michael Lowry to discuss his grubby government deal-----

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