Michael Lowry found out this week that the chairman of the Moriarty Tribunal has ordered him to pay two thirds of his legal costs which could run to €5million.

In light of this, he gave an interview to Fergal Keane, for Radio RTÉ One’s Drivetime tonight.

Michael Lowry: “Last Monday, my solicitor received communication from the tribunal, granting me one third of the total cost involved in our involvement in the Moriarty Tribunal and I had legal advice and we intend immediately to instigate a comprehensive legal challenge in the Irish courts and, if necessary, to the European courts. I was surprised with the content of the communication we received. The chairman of the tribunal has accused me of delaying and misleading and frustrating the tribunal’s workings. And, as far as we’re concerned, that is unfair, it is unjust and it is wrong. And it is indeed pathetic and lame excuse from the tribunal to apportion blame to me for delaying the tribunal because as far as I can see this is a blatant attempt to justify the excessive length of the tribunal. And, you know, the tribunal itself became a marathon, it was moving at an appallingly slow pace and that wasn’t due to our lack of co-operation, it was down to the tribunal’s own incompetence and inefficiency.”

Fergal Keane: “What size is the bill you’re facing?”

Lowry: “Well, let’s not quantify it. What happened Fergal, is that you make an application in principle for your costs so we now have to put together all of these various costs and put them before the taxing master and agree what the figure is but I’m obviously appealing to the courts and I’m told by my legals that there’s optimism that we’ll be successful, as there is considerable legal precedent in Supreme Court rulings, allowing costs to be granted on appeal in similar circumstances to my own.”

Keane “Yeah that happened in the Flood Tribunal, in the Planning Tribunal, people who were denied their costs were subsequently awarded all their costs.”

Lowry: “Yes, and there is also a Supreme Court ruling there which states clearly that tribunals can hold an inquiry, that they can form opinions and publish findings. But a tribunal has no power in law, to take punitive action against a witness to a tribunal. And, in this case, by denying me costs, the tribunal is effectively taking punitive financial action against me. And we would certainly be appealing that to the courts. The tribunal is reducing my legal costs for the mobile licence module, on the grounds that I wasn’t central to the inquiry. Now it defies all logic, common sense and any reason for the tribunal to now suggest that I was effectively nearly a casual bystander. I was the principle defendant.”

Keane: “So you had a lawyer present through all of that?”

Lowry: “Yes. There wasn’t a day passed during that 11 years that the licence was being examined that I didn’t receive a box of documents, that I didn’t receive correspondence or communications from the tribunal. It was absolutely essential for me that I had legal representation everyday at the tribunal. So, effectively, what the tribunal is now saying to me is that ‘I wasn’t actually needed at the tribunal’ and that the target of that tribunal would appear now to be the officials in the department of communications and finance and, in general, the civil servants. And you know again, as I referred to at the time, it was absolutely astounding that the chairman ignored the evidence that was given by 17 senior civil servants, by people out of the Attorney General’s office, by numerous independent witnesses who said that I had no involvement in the licence process and I didn’t at any time attempt to interfere with it. So here he comes now and he says to me that, after 11 years of I cooperating with the licence module, and in his findings he’s saying that we cooperated 100% with him in relation to the licence module, but at the same time he’s saying he’s only going to give me a third of the costs involved in that. So obviously…”

Keane: “Those costs are being estimated at I think anywhere upwards of €5million, that’s the bill that you’re facing. Can you afford that?”

Lowry: “Well, you know, obviously, we’re appealing the decision of the tribunal to the courts, there’s precedent for making a successful application to the courts to overturn the ruling of the tribunal, we’re going to proceed to do that. We’re confident that we’ll get a positive outcome. So you know if that doesn’t arise, the other situation then is obviously there are people out there who have been, my legal team in particular who’ve been very supportive and who’ve been very patient, and from our perspective we’re determined to ensure that, through this court action, we will get the costs order overturned and recover our legitimate costs.”

Listen back here

Michael Lowry to mount legal challenge against Moriarty Tribunal (Irish Examiner)

Graham Hughes/Photocall Ireland