A total of 20 lodgements, amounting to almost £200,000, to Mr Michael Lowry's various bank accounts in Dublin and Thurles were scrutinised by the tribunal yesterday.
Mr Lowry offered a partial or full explanation for 17 of the lodgements, made between 1988 and 1995. However, despite a "very tedious and painstaking trawl through his accounts", he said that he could not explain the source of the other lodgements.
The TD was also questioned about a credit transfer of £15,000 from a Dunnes Stores Bank of Ireland Marino account in November 1991. This, said Mr Lowry, "was obviously in the same context as the previous payments which I got from Mr [Ben] Dunne, which would have been bonus payments in respect of the refrigeration services that I had provided."
Mr Lowry confirmed that he had given the tribunal a "worldwide waiver" to investigate all of his bank accounts in Ireland and overseas. A similar waiver had been given by Mr Lowry's family.
He said that he took "full responsibility" for the disorganised state of his accounts and told the tribunal that he had taken steps to put them right.
Of the 20 lodgements, six were made to Mr Lowry's accounts at the Bank of Ireland in Thurles. These were: £2,500 on August 19th 1988; £4,500 on September 15th 1988; £11,900 on May 15th 1993; £6,300 on June 24th 1994; £6,985.81 on May 8th 1995; and £5,231.23 on July 25th 1995.
A total of 13 lodgements were to made to accounts at AIB in Dame Street, Dublin. These were: £10,650 on July 12th 1989; £2,500 on February 21st 1990; £16,979.61 on Feburary 22nd 1990; £2,197 on May 30th 1990; £7,000 on September 21st 1990; £11,200 on July 25th 1991; £5,620.80 on September 2nd 1991; £5,000 on March 23rd 1993; £29,702.97 on March 24th 1994; £7,419.64 on April 14th 1994; £10,621 on January 10th 1992; £25,000 on December 29th 1992; and £28,314.42 on January 5th 1995.
The other lodgement was £2,942.18, on June 29th 1989, to the Irish Permanent Building Society in Thurles.
Specific payments relating to Mr Lowry's refrigeration consultancy business explained some of the lodgements. Many of the others corresponded to Department of Finance TD's expenses cheques.
Mr Lowry said he had a tendency to hold on to cheques for a while and lodge more than one at a time. When lodging cheques, he said he would normally take out a small amount of money in cash, perhaps about £150. This, he said, would account for a discrepancy of about £31,000 in his accounts during the 10-year period between 1987 and 1996.
He added that, with a smaller TD's expenses cheque, there was "a trend in Dail Eireann where you would go and cash it within Dail Eireann and use it to pay expenses there".
