FORMER FIANNA Fáil MEP and minister of state Eoin Ryan has been formally appointed by the Government as an alternate director on the board of the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), it was confirmed yesterday.
Mr Ryan, who lost his European Parliament seat in Dublin last June, will serve a three-year term at an annual salary of £109,023 (€125,614). He replaces Anne Counihan, who has been the Irish representative on the board’s bank since 2007. The announcement was made yesterday by Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan.
Ireland is a founder-member of the bank, which was established in 1991 to help develop a new private sector in the countries of the former Soviet bloc. The EBRD is the largest single investor in the region and mobilises foreign direct investment in addition to the financing it provides itself. It is owned by 61 countries and two intergovernmental institutions.
Ireland and Denmark rotate the positions of full and alternate director on the board under a constituency agreement.
Mr Ryan, who is married with three children, comes from a family steeped in Fianna Fáil. His father was senator Eoin Ryan, the party’s director of elections in the 1977 general election, and his grandfather, Dr James Ryan, was a cabinet minister in various Fianna Fáil governments.
Elected to the European Parliament in 2004, a marathon count ended in last year’s election when he lost his seat to Joe Higgins, of the Socialist Party. Mr Ryan was the top spender in the elections in the Republic, amassing expenses of almost €215,000.