INDEPENDENT TD Michael Lowry has formally amended the Dáil’s registers of members interests for the years 2009, 2010 and 2011 after the Dáil’s ethics committee found him to have breached ethics rules by failing to declare corporate interests.
The Committee on Members’ Interests found last month that Lowry had committed two “inadvertent” breaches of the Ethics in Public Office Acts by failing to declare his shareholdings in Garuda Ltd, a refrigeration company, and Abbeygreen Consulting Ltd.
The committee had investigated the matter after Lowry’s fellow independent Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan formally complained that Lowry had not declared his shareholding in either company, and had also failed to declare a registrable interest in 11 acres of land in Two-Mile-Borris for each year from 2006 to 2011.
The committee upheld the first two complaints, though finding in each case that the contravention was “minor”, and that Lowry had “acted in good faith”, and dismissed the third one as the land was opened by a corporate body and not held directly by Lowry himself.
In the case of the two companies, it was found that Lowry believed he had already fulfilled his obligations by declaring his status as a director of either company, and that he did not know he was also required to declare his shareholding in either case.
Lowry had been ordered to amend the register with 28 days of the committee’s findings, which were issued on December 19. The latest edition of the official State gazette, the Iris Oifigiúil, notes that Lowry amended the register accordingly on January 15.
His amendments to the register means he will face no further sanction over the breaches.
In a statement after the committee’s findings were published, Lowry said he was “delighted that this most recent attempt by elements of the media to whip up a storm of unfounded suspicion has been dealt with by the Committee”.
“The outcome from my perspective is very satisfactory,” he said.
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