IN THE league of politicians renowned for palling around with property bigwigs, Cork SouthWest Blueshirt Jim O'Keeffe is hardly amongst the title contenders. So Goldhawk was intrigued to see him give two-fingers to the ethics legislation recently by receiving €7,500 from Johnny Ronan and Richard Barrett. Jimbo received these donations in three installments, through three Ronan/Barrett companies.
Those pesky ethics laws state that no TD can receive more than €2,539 from one individual or organisation as Jimbo is well aware, considering he was Fine Gael's justice spokesperson until late last year.
If a TD is unlucky enough to receive more than this from an admirer, he or she must not only swiftly return the dosh to the donor but also report the donation to the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO). Moreover, company subsidiaries are also covered in the legislation and are considered one and the same as the parent company.
So, when Treasury Holdings gave O'Keeffe €2,500 last year, he must have presumed that that would be the last he'd be hearing from the moneybags developers. O'Keeffe received another €2,500 from Spencer Dock Development Company Ltd (SDD), the company behind Treasury's mammoth development in the Dublin Docklands. While Harry ‘Point Depot' Crosbie is involved here, Treasury Holdings is the principal shareholder and, indeed, SDD's accounts - which are signed off by Ronan and Barrett - state that "the company is a subsidiary undertaking of Treasury Holdings..."
Jimbo received a third cheque for €2,500 from Treasury's Burlington Road HQ but in the name of Havenview Investments Ltd. The main shareholder here is Real Estate Opportunities Ltd (REO), the booming property venture run by Ronan and Barrett and controlled by Treasury Holdings. The other shareholders are Brossbar - a whollyowned Treasury subsidiary - and Jermyn Investment Properties Ltd, a UK company also associated with Treasury Holdings. To simplify matters, Havenview's accounts - also signed off by Ronan and Barrett - list the "ultimate holding companies" as Treasury Holdings and REO.
None of which says much for Jimbo's statement to Goldhawk that his three donors are completely separate legal entities, something which he says he checked with Treasury Holdings. Happily, O'Keeffe said he contacted SIPO when he received the "entirely unsolicited" donations and he was assured that he was completely in accordance with the rules. This is not strictly true, however, considering SIPO has no role in establishing whether or not a politician's disclosures are genuine - it merely advises politicians on the guidelines. O'Keeffe would not comment on whether or not he believed the dosh to be ultimately coming from the same source anyway, ie Johnny Ronan and Richard Barrett. His Blueshirt colleague, Leo Varadkar, recently denounced Beverly Flynn, for "breaking the spirit" of the legislation by pulling a similar stunt.
Interestingly, O'Keeffe received a fourth cheque for €2,500 from Ronan and Barrett through Castle Market Holdings Ltd but returned it when the pair told him that this company was a Treasury subsidiary.
The Pheonix
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