The former Fine Gael minister, Michael Lowry, has paid €1,434,324 in respect of tax, interest and penalties due to the Revenue Commissioners, the tribunal heard yesterday.
The payments are likely to be sufficient to settle Mr Lowry's debt to the Revenue, and that of his company, Garuda Ltd, arising out of transactions discovered by the 1997 McCracken (Dunnes Payments) tribunal, as well as the Moriarty tribunal.
However, the question of whether a criminal prosecution against Mr Lowry might be taken by the Revenue remains a live issue.
The Revenue agreed that Garuda would pay only 55 per cent of the €1.2 million it said the company owed in interest and penalties. This is one of the issues the tribunal will now inquire into, said Jacqueline O'Brien SC, for the tribunal.
The Revenue did not accept a claim by Mr Lowry's agents that the former minister made a voluntary disclosure to the Revenue in 1996. Mr Lowry availed of the 1993 tax amnesty. To do so without making a full disclosure is a criminal offence.
Ms O'Brien yesterday read an opening statement covering the Revenue's performance in raising taxes from Mr Lowry. She said Mr Lowry's issues with the Revenue had not yet been signed off on by the Revenue board, but "subject to anything untoward arising" the payments from Mr Lowry were likely to be accepted as a settlement of his liabilities.
Ms O'Brien said the tribunal was going to inquire into a number of matters, including why the Revenue chose to attribute all the payments discovered by the McCracken tribunal to Garuda, rather than Mr Lowry personally, and why it allowed a €447,000 reduction in the interest and penalties paid by Garuda.
The McCracken payments included work on Mr Lowry's home in Co Tipperary, valued at £395,107 in the McCracken report. The tribunal discovered a series of payments from Dunnes Stores and Ben Dunne to Mr Lowry and his company, Garuda, in the 1989 to 1993 period. Some of the payments were lodged offshore.
Tax, interest and penalties against Mr Lowry personally were €173,074 and arose in the main from payments from Maher Meats and Whelan Frozen Foods, for refrigeration work Mr Lowry said he provided as a consultant.
Garuda was assessed for unpaid PAYE, PRSI and VAT of €706,000 and interest and penalties of €1.218 million. However, it was agreed it would pay only 55 per cent of the interest and penalties. In total the company paid €1.26 million. The company would have gone into liquidation if the full amount had been sought, the Revenue was told.
Mr Lowry, through borrowings and declared sources of income, provided the funds to Garuda to settle its debt with the Revenue, Ms O'Brien said.
Mr Lowry made payments on account on three different dates in 1997/1998 amounting to €434,000. In 2003 he paid €336,000 and in 2005 he paid €664,000.
Ms O'Brien said all the conditions of the proposed settlement with the Revenue had not yet been met and it was not clear why. She said Mr Lowry was cautioned in February 1998 that any admissions by him could be used against him if the DPP decided to prosecute. This complicated the dealings he had with the Revenue.
However, later meetings between the two sides led to an "agreed formula for settlement" in 2003. But all the conditions set out in this had not yet been met. It was not clear why, she said. She said the tribunal would be inquiring into why the Revenue accepted the claim that Garuda would be unable to pay the full amount of interest and penalties it owed.
Ms O'Brien said the Revenue had initiated an appeal to the Appeal Commissioners for an order to set aside a certificate given to Mr Lowry when he availed of the 1993 tax amnesty. The certificate prevented the Revenue from inquiring into tax issued prior to 1992. An order was issued in November 1997 with the consent of Mr Lowry.
In 2003 the Revenue raised with Mr Lowry certain property transactions in Britain that had come to the attention of the tribunal. Mr Lowry's agents said Mr Lowry was no longer involved in a property in Cheadle, which now belonged, they believed, to the former associate of Denis O'Brien, accountant Aidan Phelan.
They also told the Revenue that Mr Lowry had only a 10 per cent stake in a property at Mansfield, with the rest being owned by Mr Phelan.
