Independent TD Michael Lowry is considering resubmitting a request to respond in the Dáil to allegations made about him by Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty last year.
Lowry wrote to Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy in January 2025, requesting permission to make a personal statement to respond to what he called a “smear” made against him by Doherty under Dáil privilege.
The allegations made by the Sinn Féin finance spokesman in the Dáil on January 23rd last year concerned an alleged deal to buy Doncaster Rovers football club for €3 million in 1998, an event investigated by the Moriarty tribunal as part of its inquiry into Lowry’s dealings with businessman Denis O’Brien during the 1990s.
Lowry has always denied he played any part in the purchase of the football club. Doherty claimed he had new information in relation to the Doncaster deal and accused Lowry, under Dáil privilege, of burning documents, among other things.
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Lowry said he immediately wrote to the Ceann Comhairle. “I formally requested an early opportunity to make a personal statement on the floor of the Dáil to address this smear,” he said at the time.
This weekend, Lowry disclosed for the first time that the Ceann Comhairle had turned down the request after protracted engagement.
Lowry had corresponded with Murphy over several months and also provided a script of his proposed personal explanation.
Murphy refused the request in April 2025 on the grounds that it was not “non-argumentative” and also because it would “cause debate or give rise to further explanations”.
In light of the decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions last Wednesday that no prosecution be taken against Lowry arising from the findings of the Moriarty tribunal, the Tipperary TD is understood to be examining his options, including making a request to respond to Doherty’s allegations in the Dáil.
Lowry said in a statement that he had been repeatedly asked by media outlets as to why he had not responded to the Doherty allegations.
“Immediately in the aftermath of Deputy Doherty’s outrageous allegations, I formally wrote to the Ceann Comhairle requesting an opportunity to address the unfounded, malicious and totally false comments of Deputy Doherty. I was strongly of the view that it would only be fair that I was allowed the opportunity to respond and put the record straight.”
Lowry said the Ceann Comhairle, relying on Dáil standing orders (rules of the House), refused his request.
Asked if he would resubmit the request, Lowry replied he had agreed with his legal team to review many of the events that occurred during what he called “this long saga”.
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Doherty’s comments to the Dáil were made during the debate to nominate the new Taoiseach on January 23rd 2025.
He said under privilege: “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.”
Lowry has always disputed the findings of the Moriarty tribunal, saying the report written by Judge Michael Moriarty was “factually wrong and deliberately misleading.” Its findings were also rejected by O’Brien.
