Dublin Report Lowry follows Haughey on Moriarty Tribunal hot seat

By John Kelly

Former Taoiseach Charles J. Haughey gave the Moriarty Tribunal little real information in his 20 hours of cross-examination. He dominated the headlines. There is, as he declared, little about him that is "common or garden."

Generally, though, the headlines were negative. The media criticism was just as shrill as it has been throughout the lengthy sitting of this tribunal.

Haughey is not off the hook. He may even be recalled to elaborate on some other points that may emerge in the future. While he longs deeply for it all to end, he may have to take the stand again.

Even though his evidence, given one hour per day in private session, was read into the record by the Court Registrar so that we did not see the ex-taoiseach in action, there was unmistakable passion in his testimony.

There were also revealing insights into the positive view he has of his role in the birth of what has become known as the Celtic Tiger. Truly, when Haughey was taoiseach, he roamed the domain of Ireland as though it was his own entire kingdom. As a taoiseach, he was something of a little emperor — which is possibly why he decided it would be appropriate for him to buy garb, especially shirts, from Charvet in Paris, former tailors to none other than Napoleon himself.

But when he was asked the hard questions about his bill paying service that disposed of almost £3.4 million in the 11 years from 1985 to 1996, and accounted for some annual expenditures of almost half a million, he was as miserly as Ebenezer Scrooge in his explanations.

You either believe him or you don’t. Such was, still is, his popularity that many still wished to believe him, no matter what.

Passionately and persistently, he defended his role in the rising of the £220,00 for the life-saving liver transplant on his closest friend and political colleague for 30 years, the late Brian Lenihan, defeated as a presidential candidate by Mary Robinson. Every penny of the fund had been spent to save the former tanaiste, who gained an extra lease of life for five years after the successful operation. He adamantly insisted there was absolutely no way that any of it would be diverted into any other fund.

But he did admit that there had been something of a minor hiccup when a check for £30,000, intended for the Lenihan treatment, had mistakenly been transferred to Celtic Helicopters, the company owned by his son Ciaran and a U.S Vietnam veteran, John Barnicle.

That mistake was rectified and the former taoiseach apologized for it in a public announcement at the time. He criticized the media, claiming that they were consistently sniping at Celtic Helicopters, a "little company," in strenuous competition with Irish Helicopters, the Aer Lingus owned subsidiary.

And he claimed that he had never lifted a "little finger" to help his son’s company secure any lucrative government contracts. What surprised many who are familiar with Haughey’s noted egotism was the fact that he gave full credit to the international financier Dermot Desmond as the man who was the father of the International Financial Services Center in Dublin.

The center was a pivotal hinge in the scheme in the dramatic revamping of the Irish economy. He told the tribunal that at Desmond’s personal request, he and members of his Cabinet had attended a meeting with the financier and four economists, all of whom were keen to revolutionize the ailing Irish economy just before the 1989 general election.

As exciting and riveting as his occasional outbursts were, the real focus of the tribunal now moves to a person who enjoys nothing like the personal popularity of the former taoiseach.

Michael Lowry, the former Fine Gael minister for communications, had the whip removed from him by his leader, John Bruton, when it emerged that he had been involved in questionable property dealings and had also accepted payments from Ben Dunne, the former managing director of the Dunne’s Stores department store chain.

Lowry, a fund-raiser in the Fine Gael party, will occupy the headlines for most of the coming week.

So will Esat Telecom, the Irish company that gained the second mobile telephone license against fierce international competition in 1995. The company was floated on the U.S. Nasdag in 1998. Many multinational companies with subsidiaries in Ireland had joined in the initial bidding melee.

But the contract went to Esat Telecom. A businessman named Denis O’Brien founded the company. Although he was known only a little in financial circles until then, he had been linked with Lowry in UK property deals.

A payment of $50,000 was made into the coffers of the Fine Gael party shortly after the awarding of the license. The man who made the contribution is a businessman named David Austin who was also well known to Lowry and his partners in the UK property speculation venture.

The former minister, who still occupies his Dail seat and claims he is prepared to fight as an independent in the next general election, says that he is eager to clear his name.

He certainly has some high-powered inquisitors ready to knock him off his perch. More than likely, some of the multinational U.S companies will have lawyers holding watching briefs at the coming Moriarty Tribunal sessions.

When it was floated on Nasdag, holding 45 percent of Esat Digifone, it had to mention some of the possible dangers in its prospectus. These are obligatory under Nasdag rules.

After a meeting of the board of directors, including Desmond, who has also featured prominently during the tribunal in relation to Haughey, it was decided to warn potential investors of the possible negative reaction of the Moriarty Tribunal on the awarding of the license. It even went so far as to warn that it could be revoked.

The tribunal will drag in its directors to ascertain why they made such a decision. Desmond will be back, but hardly in relation to Haughey. Almost certainly, the former taoiseach is yesterday’s man so far as the tribunal is concerned. Now, it is Lowry’s turn to occupy center stage.