A promise of more jobs for the West of Ireland made by Libertas leader Declan Ganley, “should be taken with a grain of salt”, Minister for European Affairs Dick Roche said this morning.
The Minister said that Mr Ganley, who is contesting the European Parliament elections in the Northwest constituency, has previously made extraordinary claims about projects which he has been behind in Ireland.
“There is a pattern with Ganley commercial operations in both the United Kingdom and in Ireland which is unenviable. None of his companies have ever delivered any significant number of jobs. Few if any have returned a profit and in those few cases where records are actually available there is no great evidence of them ever paying any significant tax,” said Mr Roche.
“Various grand schemes which Mr Ganley has put forward in Ireland over the years have been noteworthy in one regard - none of them succeeded. A few short years ago he was boasting that his brain child Adornis Ltd would out-perform Amazon.com. The company has since disappeared without a trace. Similarly inflated claims have been put forward for other Ganley ventures over the years and none have delivered a job,” he added.
Mr Roche’s comments come a day after it was confirmed that Fianna Fáil will be forced to pick a new candidate to contest the European Parliament elections in the Northwest constituency after MEP Seán Ó Neachtain said he will not be running again on health grounds.
The decision, which comes just weeks after he was nominated along with Leitrim-based Senator Paschal Mooney to run at a party convention in Castlebar, Co Mayo, is likely to increase the chances of Mr Ganley securing a seat in the tightly-fought constituency.
Announcing his decision to contest the European elections in March, Mr Ganley promised to “work every waking hour” to stimulate investment and job creation in the Northwest
