The Cedar Lounge Revolution

Yesterday in the Dáil. Well, duh… March 31, 2011

Good piece by Com Keena here in the Irish Times.

The crucial line?

Furthermore, it is difficult for him to defend his character when you consider his dealings in relation to his tax affairs.

Which are?

He resigned after it was revealed that Dunnes Stores had paid for work on his Tipperary home. On December 19th, 1996, Lowry was allowed make a personal statement to the Dáil. He said he wanted to “set the record straight”. He had not been trying to hide income he got from the Revenue: “If someone were trying to hide income, would he or she not be more likely to put it in an offshore account?”

Which was a bit of a problem because:

The statement was made just two months after he had opened his account in the Isle of Man. He also at the time had the account in the Channel Islands.
He had opened this account, with AIB Channel Islands, in January 1991, by going into AIB on O’Connell Street, Dublin, and making an opening lodgement of £55,000 sterling. The account was in his name and that of his three children.

And there was more of a problem…

Lowry had availed of the 1993 tax amnesty. To avail of it but not make a full disclosure would be deemed a criminal offence.

But that, clearly, was then, and this is now.

Yesterday, Lowry was asked by The Irish Times about the origin of the money he declared to the amnesty. He said his tax affairs were his own private concern.

Really?

It’s this astonishing disconnect which lies at the heart of this matter, a sort of rolling Year Zero where anything that has come before is not merely pushed aside but ignored and forgotten.

Where events that are on public record as noted above, that can be reported openly in the media without fear of litigation, which allow external observers to build up a sense of the issues and personalities at play, just don’t seem to have happened for some of those involved.

Not that there will be a resignation. Censure or not.