Varadkar: Lowry’s son welcome in FG
Can’t be held ‘responsible for mistakes of his father’ the former FG minister
LEO VARADKAR has signalled that he is ready to let the next generation of the Lowry dynasty join Fine Gael.
The Taoiseach indicated that an application from Micheál Lowry Jr to join the party would be welcomed. His comments came on the same day the process began to find a FG candidate in Tipperary.
When asked if there were plans for Lowry Jr – son of former Fine Gael minister Michael Lowry – to join Fine Gael, Mr Varadkar smiled and said: ‘He hasn’t submitted an application. But Micheál can’t be held responsible for the mistakes of his father. There is no reason why he wouldn’t be admitted to the party – no reason at all.’
Lowry Sr, independent TD for Tipperary – and former Fine Gael Cabinet minister – supported Mr Varadkar’s Dáil election as Taoiseach this summer.
The Taoiseach’s comments – made on the same day the Fine Gael declaration convention took place in Thurles – will be seen as incendiary in Tipperary Fine Gael.
Seven candidates were nominated to go forward to the convention – former TD Noel Coonan, councillors Michael Murphy, Michael Fitzgerald and Mary ‘Hanna’ Hourigan, as well as Garret Ahearn, Shelagh Marshall and Mary Newman. All are current members of Fine Gael.
The selection convention proper will not be held until 2018.
However, Mr Varadkar will understand that if Mr Lowry, an exceedingly successful councillor, wants to join Fine Gael he will only do so if he is a candidate for the party.
Even if Mr Lowry, after joining Fine Gael, was not selected by a convention next year, he could still be added to a ticket by party headquarters. Mr Varadkar, as party leader, has the final say on who represents Fine Gael on party tickets.
There has been fevered speculation in the past that Lowry Jr would join Fine Gael. His father resigned as a leading Fine Gael Cabinet minister in 1996. Mr Lowry was also a central figure in the Moriarty Tribunal that investigated the granting of a mobile phone licence to businessman Denis O’Brien.
Lowry Jr was elected to the fourth of nine seats in the TemplemoreThurles electoral area with over 1,900 votes in 2014. He is one of four councillors who, along with Lowry Sr, make up Team Lowry. Willie Kennedy and Lowry Jr were elected in Thurles-Templemore and Michael O’Meara and John ‘Rocky’ McGrath in the Nenagh area. They make up a formidable team.
But according to Lowry Jr, if he is to return to the ancestral fold, it will be after his father finishes in politics. Responding to Mr Varadkar’s comments, he told the Irish Mail on
Sunday he saw them as a ‘compliment’. However, he does not envisage ever standing in a general election in Tipperary while his father is still in politics.
‘Would I fit in with Fine Gael the way they’re restructuring themselves? They’d need to start to look at younger people with the drive and the energy to bring the party back to where it needs to be,’ said Lowry Jr. ‘So would I fit in? Possibly. But I don’t see myself breaking from the bossman [Lowry Sr]. I’m ambitious in everything, work-wise and everything else. I might not always realise it but I do have ambition and a desire to possibly go further. But I got into politics to support and help, and do as much as I could for the father. We’ve never spoken about him retiring – there is no grand plan, contrary to what anybody thinks.
‘He is showing no signs of slowing down. He never has mentioned anything about having a desire for himself to retire. I don’t ever envisage any scenario whereby I would contest an election against my father. It has happened in other parts of the country but it’s not going to happen in Tipperary – I’m not going to do it anyway.
‘I take those comments as a compliment because it is obviously a reflection that I’m doing my work.’