Michael Lowry (politician)

Michael Lowry TD
Lowry in 2022
Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications
In office 15 December 1994 – 30 November 1996
Taoiseach	John Bruton
Preceded by	Brian Cowen
Succeeded by	John Bruton
Teachta Dála
Incumbent
Assumed office February 2016
Constituency	Tipperary
In office February 1987 – February 2016
Constituency	Tipperary North
Personal details
Born	(1953-03-13) 13 March 1953 (age 71) Thurles, County Tipperary, Ireland
Political party	Independent (since 1997)
Other political affiliations	Fine Gael (until 1997)
Children	3
Education	CBS Thurles
Website	michaellowry.ie

Michael Lowry (born 13 March 1953) is an Irish independent politician who has served as a Teachta Dála (TD) since 1987, currently for the Tipperary constituency. He previously served as Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications from 1994 to 1996 and Chair of the Fine Gael parliamentary party from 1993 to 1994.^[1]

Lowry is a former chair of the Fine Gael party and was Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications between 1994 and 1996. He resigned from his ministry in some controversy. Fine Gael barred him from standing for the party again. Thereafter he ran as an Independent candidate and has maintained his seat in the Dáil ever since. The Moriarty Tribunal concluded "beyond doubt" that Lowry was a tax evader and had assisted businessman Denis O'Brien's Esat Digifone consortium in acquiring a lucrative mobile phone licence in the mid-1990s, during Lowry's time as Communications Minister. O'Brien went on to become one of the richest men in Ireland.^[2]

Lowry initiated a defamation lawsuit against an Irish Independent journalist, Sam Smyth, over an article that Smyth had written regarding the Moriarty Tribunal as well as comments that Smyth made on a TV3 show. The lawsuit was thrown out of several courts and Lowry was ordered to pay Smyth's legal costs. More recently his relationship with Kevin Phelan has come under scrutiny, with the emergence of a recorded conversation in which Lowry claims to have made an undeclared payment of €250,000.