Minister for European Affairs Dick Roche today launched a scathing attack on the Libertas founder Declan Ganley over reports that his company Rivada has contracts with the US military worth more than €200 million.
“Declan Ganley is calling for more openness and transparency in Europe yet the contract which was awarded to him by the US Department of Defence in September 2004 did not entail public procurement procedure whatsoever,” said Mr Roche, who described Mr Ganley as a “class A hypocrite”.
“This is a detail which Declan Ganley did not give the Irish people during the recent Lisbon Treaty referendum campaign while at the same time he was calling for more democracy in Europe,” said Mr Roche.
But speaking on RTE radio, Mr Ganley said: “The fact is that not only Rivada networks, but several leading Irish technology companies that are engaged in business with the US government, for which I make no apology and I am very proud of the Irish team that innovated and were able to go out and win this business, several leading Irish companies are doing exactly the same thing.”
He said: “It is very offensive, particularly in these economically straightened times, when people like Dick Roche get on and attack Irish entrepreneurship.”
“If they had properly nurtured entrepreneurship instead of a stamp duty collecting, property inflating, bubble producing, economic process we wouldn't find ourselves in the situation economically we are in now,” he said.
Labour’s European affairs spokesman Joe Costello said: “The revelation today that Declan Ganley of Libertas has a €200 million contract with the US military only adds to the suspicions about the source of funding of the mysterious and secretive Mr Ganley”.
Mr Costello said: “It is unacceptable that a single wealthy individual whose business interests are largely based outside this country and which now are revealed to be strongly connected with the US military should be able to use his wealth to influence the outcome of a constitutional referendum and at the same time not have to disclose the source of the funding.”
“It is time that the secretive Mr Ganley came clean, revealed the reason for his sudden appearance on the Irish political scene and the source of his colossal expenditure on his campaign opposing the Treaty,” he said.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly associated Libertas with the reported contract between Declan Ganley's Rivada and the US military. This error occurred in the editing process and is regretted".