TWO FINE GAEL ministers who met with Michael Lowry after the publication of the Moriarty Tribunal’s report, which made adverse finding about Lowry, have defended doing so.

Minister for Health James Reilly said he met with Lowry, along with other ministers and some members of the public, over a nursing home in Lowry’s constituency.

“I can’t refuse to meet with public representatives,” Reilly told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, pointing out that Lowry had received a third of the vote of North Tipperary.

Reilly said that although Fine Gael had imposed the strongest censure available to them upon Lowry – removal from the party – Lowry nevertheless had been given a mandate by the voters, and that those who had supported him were entitled to be represented.

“Am I to refuse to meet TDs because of pasty issues?” he asked. “We live in a democracy and people are elected democratically.”

Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has also admitted to meeting Lowry after the publication of the report, saying that Lowry had led a delegation from Foróige to a meeting at his office and that he tried to accommodate requests from all elected representatives, reports RTÉ.

Yesterday, Environment Minister Phil Hogan released the minutes of the meeting he held with Lowry just days after the publication of the Moriarty Tribunal report.

The minutes show that the meeting on 28 March 2011 was attended by Minister Hogan, Deputy Lowry, two officials from the Department of Environment, and two people from a company called Filmco based in Lowry’s constituency, who were lobbying for changes to farm waste legislation.

The Moriarty report found that Lowry was an “insidious and pervasive influence” on the awarding of Ireland’s second GSM mobile phone licence to Denis O’Brien’s Esat Digifone consortium.

Here’s what happened at the meeting between Phil Hogan and Michael Lowry>

Hogan accused of double standards over Lowry meeting>