The Green Party TD, Mr Ciaran Cuffe, last year transferred the management of his million-dollar share portfolio from the AIB-controlled Allfirst, after the bank became embroiled in an investment scandal.
The Dún Laoghaire TD has been embarrassed by the revelation that he owns shares in a number of oil and pharmaceutical companies with controversial environmental reputations, such as Chevron Texaco.
Last night, the chairman of the Green Party, Dublin South East TD, Mr John Gormley, said the party wanted the shares sold: "We would demand no less. The first we knew about it was when we saw it in the papers. Politics is 9/10ths perception. From that point of view, it doesn't look good," Mr Gormley told The Irish Times.
Promising to sell "inappropriate" shares, Mr Cuffe, the Greens' spokesman on the environment, said: "Yes, I am upset by all of this. I should have looked a lot more closely at what I inherited." He inherited the portfolio from his mother in late 2000/early 2001. She was a sister of Ethel Skakel, who married Robert Kennedy in 1950. He was assassinated during his campaign to win the US Presidency in 1968.
Mr Cuffe's shareholdings in Merck, Citigroup, Abbott Laboratories, Schering Plough, General Electric, Citigroup, Procter and Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, and ChevronTexaco have fallen considerably in value since he inherited them. "I intend to look a lot more closely at the environmental track record of the companies concerned and to make changes," said Mr Cuffe, who discussed the issue with the Green Party leader, Mr Trevor Sargent, after the Sunday Independent published details of Mr Cuffe's shareholdings.
The shareholdings came to light after Mr Cuffe made a declaration under the Oireachtas Register of Members' Interests, which has been made public in the Oireachtas Library.
The portfolio was managed on his behalf by the AIB-controlled Allfirst bank until trader John Rusnak lost $750m of the Baltimore bank's assets in fraudulent currency trading.
"I heard that Allfirst was not a very good place to be, so I transferred it to Brown Investment, also of Baltimore," said Mr Cuffe, who said he had made it clear to both companies that he did not want to hold shares in companies involved in the arms trade or nuclear industry.
Asked why he had not gone further and included only the most environmentally-correct companies in his portfolio, Mr Cuffe told The Irish Times: "I was not watching the ball. I did not keep a huge eye on it. I intend to make significant changes now."
Chevron Texaco was fined for pollution in Angola, while General Electric was removed from the Catholic Church's own investment list because of its involvement in the arms trade and in the dumping of chemicals into the Hudson River near New York.
A speedy sale could hit Mr Cuffe badly. His shares in General Electric, for instance, were valued at $53 in late 2002, though they are worth just $30 today.
