LIBERTAS FOUNDER Declan Ganley has denied that his stance on the fiscal treaty referendum and his position with an asset management company in Switzerland represented a “potential conflict of interest”.
In January 2011, Mr Ganley and economist Constantin Gurdgiev established a financial firm called St Columbanus AG, which offered to assist people shift savings from euro zone countries to Swiss bank accounts. “St Columbanus does not advertise in Ireland. It has not targeted Irish depositors. It’s regulated in Switzerland the same as any other asset management company,” Mr Ganley said yesterday.
Mr Ganley was responding to Fine Gael TD Paschal Donohoe, who said the confusion of private with public interest had helped cause the financial crisis in Ireland. “The aim of this company is to profit from economic instability across the euro zone. A No vote, which Declan Ganley is promoting, will create instability within Ireland and add to the uncertainty within the euro zone,” he said. “It is this very uncertainty that Declan Ganley’s company will profit from. There is clear potential for a conflict of interest that he must clarify.”
Mr Ganley said the Government was trying to distract people and “panic” them into voting Yes. He said a deal on bank debt should be secured. People should vote No and the treaty could be revisited, he said. “The only private interests benefiting from our vote on the fiscal treaty are those banks and bondholders being guaranteed billions more of Irish taxpayers’ money under the terms of the failed policies this treaty locks in.”
Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton earlier said she was not privy to the details of Mr Ganley’s business interests. “But I think if Mr Ganley has positions which may have been rather hostile to the euro, well then perhaps he has an obligation to explain that to yourselves.”
