Michael Lowry uses refrigeration company for secret property transfers

A “Michael Lowrey” – with an E – took ownership of a new home before selling it to independent TD Michael Lowry’s daughter for €50,000. Lowry’s refrigeration company later bought the house from his daughter for €290,000 and remains the property's current owner. 

Separately Lowry used the same company to buy the most expensive new home in a Waterford city development as an investment. TDs aren’t required to declare their interest in properties they buy through companies – even in instances, like Lowry, where they are the sole shareholders of companies that buy investment properties.

Lowry, a convicted tax cheat found by a tribunal to have engaged in “profoundly corrupt” behaviour, was instrumental in the government formation talks that led to Micheál Martin’s appointment as taoiseach last week. 

‘It is unclear why the refrigeration company bought the detached residential property’

Tipperary North TD Michael Lowry is the sole shareholder in Garuda Unlimited, a refrigeration equipment company that accepted controversial payments from the late Ben Dunne.

In 2007 a developer transferred ownership of a newly built property at Dún Lia in Thurles, county Tipperary, to “Michael Lowrey”, according to Land Registry records.

In January 2010, a “Michael Lowry” transferred the property to Lorraine Lowry – TD Michael Lowry’s daughter – for €50,000. The sale was recorded in the Property Price register as below market value.

Land and Property Price register records show that Lowry’s company Garuda bought the Thurles property from Lorraine Lowry in January 2022 for €290,000. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on her part.

It is unclear why the refrigeration company bought the detached residential property and what it has done with it for the past three years.

Meanwhile Garuda paid €322,500, excluding VAT, on 17 December, 2018 for a brand-new home in Waterford’s Foxwood estate. The price was €67,000 more than the second-most expensive house in the development at that time.

The Ditch has verified that a horse-racing enthusiast and her family moved into the property just four days later.

The Property Price Register shows the mortgage-free house was sold last month for €365,000, though Garuda is still the registered owner.

Garuda – an unlimited company exempt from filing accounts with the Companies Registration Office – hasn’t just focused on residential properties. In March 2019 it became the registered owner of 39 acres of land in Townagha, a townland near Thurles.

Lowry isn’t required to declare these properties because of an anomaly in ethics legislation that governs elected representatives. According to these laws, local councillors must declare properties owned through their companies, but this requirement doesn’t apply to Oireachtas members.

The two houses and land are separate from the other properties Lowry declares annually in his Dáil ethics return. These include his private home on 35 acres of land, 22.5 acres of land in Britain and a 3.75-acre development site in Thurles.

Lowry successfully led the Independent Group of TDs in talks to form a government with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. The deal is believed to have included support for Verona Murphy’s appointment as ceann comhairle.

Lowry is seeking Dáil speaking time to address new allegations of wrongdoing against him last week by Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty.

He declined to comment.