Former European commissioner and cabinet minister Phil Hogan has been appointed to an unpaid position on an internal Fine Gael election committee.
Mr Hogan, who resigned his position as EU trade commissioner in 2020 after being caught up in the Golfgate scandal, has built an extensive advisory business since stepping back from politics.
It is understood he is satisfied that no conflict of interest exists between his work with Fine Gael and his lobbying work.
Mr Hogan will be joined on the committee by Fine Gael general secretary John Carroll, former tánaiste and minister for justice Frances Fitzgerald, the former TD Olwyn Enright who is heading up election strategy and campaign planning for the party, and Dublin Rathdown TD Colm Brophy.
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The Sunday Independent, which first reported the move, said the committee will report to Taoiseach Simon Harris directly. Mr Harris said that he had taken advice from Mr Hogan, among others, while he was presumptive taoiseach after Leo Varadkar indicated he would be stepping down but before the Wicklow TD was elected as leader of Fine Gael.
Official filings made by Mr Hogan, who also previously served as agriculture commissioner, declared some €1 million in annual revenues from his consultancy firm Triton Advisory in 2022, including from Visa, Vodafone and glass and metal products supplier Ardagh.
His clients also include a digital finance business, Proof of Trust, which has been in repeated contact with the cabinet of his successor as Ireland’s European commissioner.
Mr Hogan resigned his post after he lost the support of the three coalition leaders following his controversial attendance at a dinner organised by the Oireachtas golf society during Covid-19 restrictions which also led to the resignation of then minister for agriculture Dara Calleary.
He later said the government leaders in Ireland had acted on a “populist wave of indignation”.
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