Dear Tipperary North voter,
Greetings from a culchie in the capital. I’m writing this letter because you probably need cheering up. You must be feeling mortified at the bedlam created in the Dáil by your TD, Michael Lowry. The chat here is all about the vulgar eff-you gesture he made in the chamber on Tuesday and the gutless excuse that he was only beckoning Solidarity’s Paul Murphy. There must be some awful quare customs around Nenagh and Roscrea if it’s normal to beckon someone by raising the back sides of your two fingers in the air at them.
Lucky for Lowry, there has been no discussion about the hand signal he made before that when he twirled his finger beside his head seeming to simulate the classic body language for “you’ve a screw loose”. Maybe that wasn’t what he meant but that’s how it looked to some of those watching.
Surely this week’s episode of Lowry’s One Foot in the Gravy Train has finally dragged the scales from the eyes of voters who have consistently re-elected him in the 14 years since the Moriarty tribunal concluded he made a “corrupt” intervention in relation to Ben Dunne, the late businessman who paid for the refurbishment of his house in Holy Cross. By the way, did you know Judge Michael Moriarty said one of Lowry’s “most reprehensible” actions was pocketing £34,500 that Dunnes Stores had designated as Christmas bonuses for workers in his refrigeration company, Streamline Enterprises? I doubt those employees and their families are dashing out to vote for him.
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That sum may seem paltry compared to the €1m-plus in payments and benefits the mobile phone licence winner Denis O’Brien showered on the former minister for communications, but it is a microcosm of Lowry’s contempt for other people. That contempt is now impeding the Dáil from getting on with its job of minding the country. The next time he demands a new hospital or better mental health services for Tipperary, remember what he really thinks of those who need them. Actions speak louder than words.
Today is the 140th day since the last Dáil was dissolved and not a single committee has been established
I set out to cheer you up with this letter but, actually, I’m furious with you for foisting this man on us all. Because of him, the 34th Dáil has been as productive as a stable of geldings since it first met on December 8th. Today is the 140th day since the last Dáil was dissolved and not a single committee has been established. Proceedings in the chamber have been repeatedly aborted and the stand-off over speaking rights is consuming so much oxygen that little of substance is being said at all. All for the sake of eight minutes a week in the spotlight of the Leaders’ Questions box office slot and potential apportioning of committee chairs to his Regional Independents Group under the d’Hondt system.
The Opposition did not start this. Neither did the Government, though it is, bewilderingly, keeping it going. It started when Lowry signed up as the unconditional guarantor of the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael Coalition. As thanks, his nominee was elected Ceann Comhairle on a €255,513 salary, two of his group were made €172,769-per-annum super juniors and another two became juniors on €159,625. Then Lowry claimed he was in the Opposition. The whole thing really is that silly.
It costs about €170 million per year to run Leinster House. Next week marks one-third of a year since the general election. As the McCracken and Moriarty tribunals showed, Lowry can be damn good with figures. Let him do the maths on how much public money is being squandered on his nonsense. I don’t expect he’ll be getting first preferences from anybody in the constituency who complained about the exorbitant cost of the Leinster House bike shelter.
Your man, Lowry, could have stopped these shenanigans long ago if he cared about Tipperary North or Ireland. He could have gone to Micheál Martin and said: “Look, forget about me. More than 15,000 people are homeless, children with autism are being excluded from schools, climate damage is threatening our species, young people are emigrating because they cannot buy or rent somewhere to live here, Palestinians are being killed in the West Bank without a sign of the Occupied Territories Bill on the way and Donald Trump is starting a trade war with us on Wednesday that could cost this country 80,000 jobs.”
Does it not bother you that a High Court judge described Lowry’s conduct as ‘profoundly corrupt to a degree that was nothing short of breathtaking’?
Instead, he has revelled in the mayhem he is causing, goading Opposition TDs by waving proactively at them across the chamber. He acts like a spectator in his back-row seat while Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael profess their newfound concern for backbenchers’ speaking opportunities. When you voted for him in November, did you think he would undergo a late-in-life conversion and start respecting the national parliament? Have you forgotten when his fishy finances were first exposed and he told the Dáil that, sure, if he wanted to hide money, wouldn’t he have an offshore bank account? The Revenue Commissioners found out he had and invited him to hand over €1.4m. Deputy Lowry, who believes he is not a liar, had previously availed of a national tax amnesty.
As his constituent, you have a democratic right to lower the tone of Dáil Éireann by ensuring he tops the poll every time but, come on, does it not bother you that a High Court judge described his conduct as “profoundly corrupt to a degree that was nothing short of breathtaking”?
What about his court conviction for tax noncompliance? Do you think every party in the Dáil was wrong when it called on him to resign his seat in 2011? Despite huffing and puffing that he would request Dáil time to respond to allegations of evidence tampering made by Pearse Doherty on January 23rd, there has not been a squeak since.
Instead of tinkering with speaking times to aggrandise Lowry, the Government ought to be drafting legislation for the crime of misusing public office. It would be a simpler and speedier offence to prosecute than corruption and offer a swift kick out the door of Leinster House. But, of course, it won’t do that because you made the obvious suspect the king maker.
Yours sincerely.
