Pearse Doherty
Donegal · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“I move amendment No. 1 to Seanad recommendation No. 2: To delete from the row dated "1 September 2026" down to and including the row dated "1 May 2030" and substitute the following: " 15 July 2026 €502.88 €502.88 €371.85 €371.85 €371.85 €0.00 €210.45 €172.14 €167.25 €79.17 €11.48 14 October 2026 €502.88 €502.88 €371.85 €371.85 €371.85 €0.…”
“Next week, this House will rise, the doors of Leinster House will be locked and Ministers will head off on their summer holidays. Their parting gift to ordinary Irish people across the State will be to have locked in fuel price increases that will hit them in their pockets.”
“That is not acceptable and it is why we in Sinn Féin have tabled this amendment to say that these price increases should not be going ahead and that prices should be properly monitored at the appropriate time.”
“This is tied to the latter amendment and I will speak further at length on that. Recommendation No. 1 deals with the diesel rebate scheme, which operates within a window that closes on 1 October.”
“Hope is what we rely on when we have no control. It is not a substitute for prudent economic planning. There is zero certainty here. There are no guarantees that the Strait of Hormuz will remain open or that global supply lines will not be choked tomorrow morning.”
“As if that were not good enough, the Government is not just hitting people with increases on petrol and diesel. On top of that, it is going to hit them with an increase in the cost of home heating oil, natural gas and a basic bag of coal.”
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“Their file is so thick. They have been applying for the last three years to every single school and have been refused. They have been number one, six or eight on the list. That child is now transitioning into secondary school and has nowhere to go despite having additional needs. The primary school that she attends is telling her that it is not suitable for her needs. She went through the whole primary system knowing that she was in the wrong school. There is nowhere to go as she transitions to secondary school. The family has letter after letter refusing them. This is about cherishing the children of the nation equally. There is a clear sign. This is not the first time that we have had a debate on this. If you have children with additional needs, this Government is not looking after your needs.”
“We have a school, Little Angels School, which is the only school in the county dedicated to children with severe and profound learning disabilities. It is a fantastic school. It recently had a brand new state-of-the-art building constructed. It should be a moment of celebration for everybody but it is too small. Countless families have sat across from me, some of them in tears, who cannot get a place for their child, son or daughter, despite all the reports, some of which I have, telling them that they need to be in Little Angels. It is not fair on the staff, the principal or the board of management. The school is too small. These children are not newborns. The State should know that these children have additional needs and need to be supported in a classroom. I have another family originally from Donegal. They live in Dublin now.”
“I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on this. I am sure the Minister is aware that if you are a parent of a child with additional needs, sometimes it can be exhausting. It is not the child that exhausts you, but fighting against the system over and over again. Over the last number of weeks and indeed in the last number of days, with a huge number of people coming to us, I have heard first-hand from parents about that exhaustion and about how they have been beaten down by the system because their children do not have a place to go in September or indeed at this point in time. In Donegal, we now have a full-blown crisis. I am sure the Minister is aware of the situation and I invite her to Donegal to look at it.”
“There is a serious issue here. We cannot go through another RTÉ phase 2. We need all the information and Ministers need to tell us what the Department knew, who knew, whether the Department of public expenditure knew and whether the Department of the environment knew.”
“In its annual statement, the Arts Council states: In July 2021 the project moved to a standing item on the Council’s Plenary Agenda. The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media have been updated and informed throughout the project. Does the Tánaiste believe that is a false statement by the board in its annual statement? Does he believe that the Department was informed and that the Minister just did not inform him?”
“Does the Tánaiste accept that the Government and, indeed, the Government of which he was in charge during the previous term has a serious problem with the waste of public money? Those in government are serial wasters. That is what we are seeing over and over again. The Tánaiste talks about accountability. Name the person who was held accountable for the overspend on the national children's hospital. Name the person who was held accountable for the bike shed, the security hut or the wall that cost an arm and a leg. That is the reality. It just moves on. The question is how could this have happened? This project was initially approved by the Department of public expenditure. I do not know if it was Deputy Donohoe or Michael McGrath who was there at the time.”
“I am asking the Tánaiste to stand up for people who were left without electricity for weeks on end and to make it clear to the ESB top brass that there will be no increases as a result of this. Not only that, but we also expect the ESB to compensate people. Remember, during the term of the last Government, the ESB was fined €37 million for failures in supply. It needs to start compensating people and show some humility. Will the Tánaiste call the top brass of the ESB and make those points to them?”
“It is not a case of whether the ESB will be gouging people in the future. The ESB has been gouging customers for years. People in the Tánaiste's constituency, in my constituency and right across this State pay among the highest electricity costs in Europe. The ESB made profits of €898 million in the last calendar year we have available. That is a significant amount of profit. In the first 18 months, €1.3 billion has been transferred by individuals paying their electricity bills to the ESB. There are serious amounts of costs in terms of ESB bills, not just in terms of running costs and standing charges. While the CEO of the ESB said his comments were insensitive, he has not ruled out that these costs will be borne by customers in 2026.”
“The top brass of the ESB need a wake-up call and the people are asking why the Government is not giving it to them. Clearly, the head honchos of the ESB are not prepared to let a good crisis go to waste in boosting profits. The Government needs to come off the bench in this. The Tánaiste needs to get on the pitch to start protecting people from the impact of this storm and to ensure the storm is not used as an excuse by the ESB to gouge customers even further. What does that mean? It means hauling in the senior management of the ESB, sitting them down and making it very clear to them that those whose lives have been rocked by this storm are not the people who are going to be forced to fork out in order to cover up the failures and mismanagement of the ESB in the first instance.”
“It beggars belief that the CEO of the ESB came out and said that its customers would have to foot the bill for damage to the network caused by the storm. This is the head of a company which made profits of €898 million in 2023 telling people in rural Ireland, many of whom went without electricity for two weeks, that they have to cough up in the form of higher bills. What planet is he living on? Let me be clear, it is the ESB who should be compensating customers for the amount of time they went without power. To fund the repair of the network, the CEO's first port of call needs to be the massive profits the ESB has accumulated through ripping off customers with some of the highest electricity prices in the EU in recent years. People are really angry about this.”
“That was to be seen right across rural Ireland. Many experienced real isolation in the absence of power, water, light, heat and telecommunications. Apart from the heroic efforts of ordinary workers, community activists and those in our local authorities and utility companies, the reality is that most communities had to fend for themselves as the Government failed to grasp the severity of the situation. The reason we see this slack response from the Government is because rural communities and those who live there simply do not matter in the eyes of this Government. That sense of abandonment and anger is very real. To add insult to injury, we now have the top brass of the ESB effectively bullying those who suffered the most.”
“With the formation of their most recent Government, we see that the sidelining of rural Ireland and the west continues, with just one Minister from all of Connacht and Ulster and no Minister from the Border counties at all. Well done. The Taoiseach and the Tánaiste have together managed to pull off perhaps the most east-coast-centric Government ever. While rural people are well used to getting the cold shoulder from the Government, we have seen this disrespect and marginalisation in its sharpest, most disastrous form in the aftermath of the most recent storm. The Government's sluggish and shoddy response to the devastation and hardship caused by the storm in rural Ireland says it all. Its failure to treat it as a national crisis meant communities were left with significant difficulties just to meet basic needs.”
“Is fíor a rá gur chaith Rialtais Fhianna Fáil agus Fhine Gael go holc le ceantair tuaithe ar fud an Stáit thar na blianta. Léiríonn an dóigh ar láimhseáil an Rialtas an stoirm is déanaí an cás seo arís. Le rudaí a dhéanamh níos measa, tá na bodaigh mhóra i mBord Soláthair an Leictreachais anois ag rá go gcaithfidh gnáthdhaoine na tíre seo, daoine a bhí fágtha gan leictreachas, billí níos airde a íoc chun an damáiste a chóiriú. Caithfear stop a chur leis seo. It is fair to say that both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments have successively given a raw deal to rural Ireland throughout the years. At times, rural communities have been treated as almost second-class citizens.”
“The idea that their taxpayers' money, which they pay when they have finished their week on the shop floor, is being invested, no matter how big or small the investments - and millions are being invested - in companies that are operating in illegal Israeli settlements is repugnant and should stop today. That is what this is all about. It is not about asking whether €4 million is going to have a big impact or not. It should not be happening at all. It should be stopped immediately. It should have been stopped ages ago but it really needs to stop now. I am asking the Minister to engage with the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF, to ensure that we divest from those investments without delay.”
“My colleague, Deputy Daly, has outlined clearly and in detail the activities of some of these companies in which Ireland is investing. I will put the issue to the Minister again. We have raised it numerous times during meetings of the finance committee where we have tried to pursue the legislation. What the Minister has told the House is that millions of euro of taxpayers' money are invested in companies that derive their profits from the illegal Israeli settlements. That is repugnant to hundreds of thousands of people who cannot stop it. The only person who can stop it is the Minister.”
“This is an issue we have raised on numerous occasions. My colleague has legislation before the House that has, unfortunately, been blocked by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in the face of a genocide. The question asks for the current total number and value of State investments in companies that derive profit from their activities in illegal Israeli settlements, the total number of such investments, the Minister's view on whether such investments help entrench and sustain Israel’s illegal occupation and run contrary to rulings of the International Court of Justice and the amount of profit Ireland derived from such investments since 2022, by company, by year and in tabular form.”
“Given the dependence on American multinationals here and the number of them that will be paying the 15% tax rate compared with others, is there any concern about this measure being used against Ireland? What engagement have we had with the US Administration up to now at a domestic level, as opposed to a European level, which is also important?”
“I thank the Minister. I agree it is early days and we will have to see. President Trump has made statements that seem to be a negotiation stance, so we definitely need to have those engagements at a European level and a domestic level to see how this will play out. Obviously pillar 1 and pillar 2 had a net reduction in our corporation tax. The implementation of those reduced the corporation tax the State would bring in and therefore the non-application of it would have the reverse effect, but there could be other consequences. The United States Administration has also threatened to use section 891, which allows for the executive authority to deal with discriminatory extraterritorial taxes if it believes a jurisdiction is impacting on American multinationals moreso than anywhere else.”
“I agree with the Minister’s point we need to try to bring America back into the fold and discuss this, but my question is whether he or the Department are looking at that legislation and how it would apply if America stays with its current position. Our legislation means this State will potentially have to collect taxes from American companies that never operated here and never employed anybody here just because they have a subsidiary here. That is a serious problem for this deal. The interest is to get the Americans back in to discuss and negotiate this but if that does not happen what preparations are we making and what is the timeframe we need to deal with?”
“I thank the Minister. I am going to park pillar 1 because it never came into effect anyway and we have not transposed it into legislation. If we look at it from a financial point of view it was not in our interests and if we look at it from a global point of view it was good to have an agreement internationally. Pillar 2 is a serious problem for us because it is now in our domestic law and companies are preparing for the 15% minimum effective tax rate, which I completely and utterly support. Those companies are probably asking whether that tax rate is going to apply and can this deal go ahead without American involvement.”
“This question is on the OECD pillar 2. Obviously, for those of us who support the OECD process and the outcomes of that the decision by the American Administration to withdraw from it has caused serious questions about the implementation not only of pillar 1, which was stalled, but also the practicality of pillar 2. As this is transposed into domestic legislation it includes the provision of the undertaxed profits rule, UTPR, which could potentially see this State applying top-up tax to American companies. It was really never the intention for a major economic powerhouse to not be part of this, so I am asking where we need to go with this and what are the early considerations from the Department.”
“There are others, outside of the accommodation sector, such as the hospitality sector, the events industry, cinemas and so on, who were looking for this. Can the Minister clarify whether this will apply to them or is he of the view that it relates solely to hotels and catering? I ask the question for the third time: will this take effect on budget night or on 1 January? This is important information for businesses thinking of whether they can hang on.”
“I am very concerned about what the Minister just said. I say that because I have been in premises and spoken with hoteliers and restaurateurs. They opened up their books to me in some cases. They are expecting a reduction to 9%. They are talking to their accountants and figuring whether they can hang on. They are also talking in some cases to their bank managers. The Government was saying it would be 9%. It is not clear now whether it will be 9%. Is there a reason the Minister is not saying what everybody else said after the programme for Government was agreed? The number is not in the programme for Government. That is why I am asking the Minister the question. Can he give any comfort to people expecting a 9% rate and engaging with their bank managers and accountants on that basis that this will be the rate?”
“The Minister made a commitment and recognised that there was a need to do this within the first 100 days of the Government being in office. Does he still believe that? We strongly believe that this should be done before the summer. If it does not happen then, when will it happen? Reference to the budget can mean something happening on budget night or on 1 January. What sectors will be included?”
“Can the Minister offer clarification to the House and, more importantly, to the thousands of businesses across the State and the 130,000 people dependent on jobs in the hospitality sector? That sector is under pressure. We have seen 700 businesses close down since the Government increased the VAT rate to 13.5%. According to CSO employment figures released in June, the hospitality sector saw the largest drop of any sector, namely 0.9%. Is there a reason the Minister is not committing to a rate of 9%? Everybody believes that the rate will be 9%. Is he not doing that just because it is tradition to do it on budget day or is there a question mark over whether it could still be the 11% he advocated during the general election campaign? Is it still up for debate? That is the first question.”
“This is about the reduction of the VAT rate for the hospitality sector. The Minister will be well aware that Sinn Féin was the only party to call for the 9% VAT rate for the hospitality sector in the general election. The Minister campaigned for a rate of 11%, and Fianna Fáil wished to keep the higher rate. There is a commitment in the programme for Government to reduce the rate. It has been reported that it will be 9% but the programme for Government is vague on the percentage. Can the Minister confirm the Government’s position? Will the rate be 9%? When will it come into effect? Will it be in effect before the summer, on budget day or 1 January?”
“What are the Government's views in that regard? There is no doubt that there have been many changes. I advocated for a large number of them, and we supported all of them. However, one thing we said previously is that we need to get agreement from the insurance industry about what this would mean for premiums. Industry representatives came before the finance committee and told us that if we did not see reductions of 20%, we would need to ask serious questions. There have been no reductions of 20%. Motor insurance has gone up by 12% and the cost of household insurance has gone through the roof. Public liability for sports clubs and businesses never decreased.”
“If we have the same objective, then the Government should allow the legislation that I have drafted to proceed. It passed Second Stage here about three years ago. The Government is stopping that legislation from being passed. All of the major insurance companies here are the same ones that operate in Britain, where they have to account for whether the reduced costs that the changes in the legislation there are supposed to have resulted in have been passed on. If the Minister of State is genuinely sincere in what he says, then let us work on this together. I would like to hear the Minister of State's view on the Government's position. He will be aware that the Judicial Council has submitted its proposal to the Minister for Justice on an almost 17% increase in the value of awards. That is something which would result in awards going up.”
“What is happening here is the profits of the industry are increasing, the premiums are going up and it is punters - ordinary people - who are suffering. They are looking to the Government for action. I introduced legislation that would force insurance companies to do what happens in the North and in Britain, which is to give an account of whether they are passing on the savings being made. Why is the Government blocking that legislation? Perhaps as a new Minister of State, Deputy Troy will stop blocking that legislation and allow it to pass.”
“The Minister of State is new in the brief but I have heard nothing from him that is new. The one factor that is constant in all of this is that people are being ripped off. Motor insurance has increased by 12% since 2022. I am sure the Minister of State knows all about the increases from having to insure his house. A significant number of people are seeing their insurance premium go up, and not only by €300, €400 or €500. What is happening in the insurance industry is ridiculous. Insurance brokers argue that it is due to the cost of construction, but the latter has not increased to that level. The profits of this industry are at record highs. They are huge, yet the number of claims and the value of the awards that have been paid through the courts and other bodies are decreasing.”
“The question before us relates to the ever-increasing insurance costs that motorists, homeowners, small businesses and sports clubs have to pay. One would think all is good with insurance looking at the programme for Government. Does the Minister accept that there is a fundamental problem with insurance in the State? Does he also accept that premiums are too high and are increasing for many? What is he going to do to bring about a reduction in insurance premiums and ensure affordability? In this new Dáil term, will he stop blocking my Bill that would bring accountability and force insurance companies to show whether they are passing on savings that have been made as a result of reforms introduced in these Houses?”
“Today, they are again subverting the Constitution. The Constitution does not allow for what they are trying to do. The grubby little deal, the attempt to have more Ministers than ever before, more super junior Ministers and more salaries for them is not just bad politics, it is not just a stroke, it is unconstitutional. What is the defence we hear from the Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin? He says that the population is growing so we need more people. Does that mean that the next time when we see the population increase we are going to have 30 junior Ministers and maybe seven super junior Ministers? This needs to stop. It is being called out. We will fight this tooth and nail, and not only in this House. Thankfully, Deputy Pa Daly has taken the Government to court. We will allow the courts to decide in relation to this deal.”
“Worst of all is that this is not just a grubby deal or about snouts in the trough. What is being done is unconstitutional. There cannot be super junior Ministers. I applaud my colleague Deputy Pa Daly for taking the Government to court. Let us wait to hear what the court decides. I remember when I had to take the Fianna Fáil Government to court, when Deputy Pat The Cope Gallagher was elected to the European Parliament. Because of the self-interest of the Fianna Fáil Party at that time, it refused on three occasions in this House permission on a vote to hold a by-election, leaving my constituents a year and a half without the representation to which they are entitled under the Constitution. The Taoiseach, Deputy Micheál Martin and the then Government denied the constitutional rights of my constituents, but I won my case.”
“That is what this Bill is about. What is being done is shameful, particularly in the face of the many challenges that exist. People in my constituency today are looking at their loved ones on hospital trolleys. Individuals have phoned me from my constituency about relatives who cannot get places for children with special needs in local schools. There are those such as the person I described yesterday who is 85 years of age, who has very little money and who was left without electricity for ten days. This shows the priority of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Deputy Michael Lowry. We know what his priorities are because he has been feathering his nest for many years. This sums up exactly who the members of our Government are, what they are about and the priorities they have.”
“There is no legislation on those issues. What about the section 39 workers? There is no legislation to deal with them. What about the carers who are still subject to means testing? There is no legislation to deal with them. The priority of this Government is this Bill, which increases the number of Ministers of State from 20 to 23 - the highest number in the history of this State. The Government is not stopping there. It wants to make sure that those Ministers have more money than ever before. They will have more money than ever before because they are now going to get salaries of €160,000. In addition, €32,000 of expenses was also negotiated as part of the Lowry deal. That is not the end of it. There is then a sweetener, because the four of those special junior Ministers are going to get another bump in their salary of more than €13,000.”
“We could have a junior Minister for the marine included in the 20 who were already there. We do not need additional super junior Ministers. Indeed, not one of them will have responsibility for the marine. What this Bill is about is very simple. It is about the first action of this Government. It is part of a grubby deal made by this Government, a deal that was struck with the Lowry Independents. It is all about lining up the plum jobs and finding out how many snouts we can get into the trough. It is tone deaf. It is not just a bad look; it is also completely and utterly wrong. It is wrong to prioritise your own interests. It is wrong to feather your own nest. It is wrong to do that while working families are struggling to get by. People are being fleeced by the ESB, in terms of electricity costs, and by insurance companies.”
“Tá mé buíoch as ucht a bheith in ann labhairt ar an mBille seo anocht. Tá an Bille seo náireach. Tá sé absolutely náireach gurb é an chéad phíosa reachtaíochta atá tugtha chun tosaigh sa Dáil seo ag Fianna Fáil agus Fine Gael ná chun níos mó Airí Stáit agus níos mó super juniors a bheith againn, níos mó airgid a thaobh dóibh agus gurb iad seo na príomhfhadhbanna a shíleann an Rialtas atá sa tír seo. Mar a dúirt mé, tá sé náireach. The fact that this is the first legislation that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael thought necessary to bring forward sums up the priorities of this Government. I listened to my colleague from the constituency talking about the marine and fisheries. Most of what he said is accurate. However, this Bill does not deal with those matters; it relates to additional junior Ministers.”
“Can I ask for clarification? Is the Taoiseach standing there saying he did not accuse the leader of the Opposition of "ag insint bréag". He took advantage of the fact the Ceann Comhairle has no Irish and it is absolutely disgraceful. It is underhand. He should withdraw the remark.”
“One person who contacted me by phone has relocated to the county, having thought they could do remote living and work from home, but they are now questioning that whole idea. Many others have told me to relay to the Government that if it tries to take their fireplace or stove from them, it will have another thing coming, because they have been left without heat or electricity for nearly 16 days. An old saying of government is that lessons must be learned, but in this case the lessons should have been learned already. This was not the first storm we have had. The preparation should have been there and there was not an effective plan. Unfortunately, the Government was caught out in a bad way and people were let down as a result.”
“The Government's response to the storm failed rural Ireland, I think it is fair to say. There was scrambling after the fact. Generators were in the wrong place, we did not have a list of hubs and we did not know where people could go for essential services. This did not, however, come out of the blue. There had been warning after warning from the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, which had called out ESB Networks for unacceptable continued poor performance levels when it comes to ensuring reliability of supply. This has been going on for years, despite the ESB making eye-watering profits. We now need to see from the ESB goodwill payments for those who have been affected and the waiving of the standing charges, but it is not just the ESB. People in my county still do not have an Internet connection - businesses and residents alike.”
“One case that impacted on me, although there were many, related to the family of an 85-year-old who was in contact with my office. There was no family near to where this person lived and he was alone without power for ten days. This 85-year-old was in poor health, with no light, heat or warm water for ten days. That is simply unacceptable. He was too frail to make it to any of the hubs and despite living only on a pension, he had to find money to pay for a room in a nearby hotel after the tenth day. A school in Donegal town with 30 children was left without electricity for more than a week. That is a full week of parents having to make alternative arrangements and, most likely, take time off work. Action needs to be taken by the Government to ensure this will not happen again.”
“My county had an especially challenging time because a warning was issued directing people in mobile homes to leave them but, as the Minister of State will know, as a result of the defective concrete blocks scandal many of my constituents use mobile homes because their houses are less safe than a mobile home during a storm. I was very concerned for many of those people and, indeed, some mobile homes have been significantly damaged. Approximately 87,000 homes, farms and businesses in Donegal, practically the entire county, were without power after the storm, while 700 were still without power last weekend. It was only yesterday the ESB was able to confirm that all homes had had power restored, 16 days after the storm.”
“When I looked at the hubs that were announced by the Government maybe a week after the storm, I discovered they were actually the community groups that were already acting from day one, just collated on a piece of paper. They are the real heroes in our community and they need to be respected, so I echo the calls in the motion to bring forward a scheme to allow those to be assisted in those sectors as well. Without our local radio stations, many would not have known how to be reconnected, get information or, say, recharge the battery of a hoist for a child with a disability, or where they could find a safe haven.”
“I commend those who responded to the elderly and those who cleared roads. I also commend the staff of our State organisations, our councils, Uisce Éireann and the ESB. They all went above and beyond to get people up and back at it. Community and sporting groups opened up their facilities. As Deputy Ó Laoghaire and others mentioned, many had their own facilities damaged. Businesses opened up their premises to allow people to recharge batteries. In some cases, hotels provided hot showers and free beds. Some of these premises had been damaged and no support has been offered to any of those sporting organisations, community groups or businesses.”
“In my constituency of Donegal a lot of damage was done. The biggest damage was to the life of Kacper Dudek, a 20-year-old returning home from work who was killed during the storm. I want to think about him, his family and friends today. He was such a young man. We talk about the impacts that this storm has had across the State but the impact for Kacper's family will be forever. I express my gratitude to the staff of the ESB who were in regular contact with me during that time. They pulled out all the stops to get the power back on in the family home so that they could have a wake and grieve for Kacper. It took a while, but the ESB was able to achieve that. We have seen huge devastation in our communities but we have also seen the best of our communities with the voluntary and community effort across Donegal and the State.”
“Now he hands him substantial influence over this Government. Maybe the next time Deputy Martin sits down with Michael Lowry to discuss his grubby government deal-----”
“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. He did so to make sure that the truth would never see the light of day. The information I am now telling the Tánaiste comes directly from one of the men present. Michael Lowry has been found by the tribunal. When Micheál Martin called on the Taoiseach at the time, Enda Kenny, to reopen the investigation into Michael Lowry it was because of some information that came from the same individual who has given me this information. How does he square the circle? Back then he wanted Michael Lowry investigated and now he wants him in the bosom of government. Now he allows Deputy Lowry to play the part of king maker.”
“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.”
“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.”
“It was Deputy Michael Lowry, the star of the Moriarty tribunal, which found that Michael Lowry received over €1 million in direct payments and loan supports from Denis O'Brien, whom he was instrumental, as Minister, in delivering a State licensing contract to. Deputy Lowry, in the Tánaiste's words, "not only influenced, but delivered, the result", "engaged in a "cynical and venal abuse of office" and "he was involved in attempting to influence an arrangement that was "profoundly corrupt to a degree that was nothing short of breathtaking". Those are the Tánaiste's words. The Tánaiste called him a rogue politician; now he welcomes him back into the bosom of government. Deputy Lowry is a Government-supporting TD and the Tánaiste has pursued facilitating him with speaking time.”