Shay Brennan: Daddy Appointed His 2 Bosses to Quangos

oceanclub

Great piece by Shane Ross today, one of the few literate people left working for the Indo:

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/george-lee-is-the-business-1734608.html

Young Shay Brennan has asked us not to blame him for all the woes of Anglo Irish Bank just because he is an employee there. He is dead right. Hundreds of the bank's decent employees were unaware of the shenanigans at the top. Shay is undoubtedly one of them.

Yet Shay was an employee at Anglo.

Enter a couple of extraordinary coincidences. Young Shay was first employed in the treasury department of Anglo in 2003 as a junior official. He worked his way up to manager level in a competitive atmosphere.

In March 2004 Shay's father Seamus, the Minister for Transport, was dishing out the directorships for the board of Aer Lingus and guess what occurred to him? How about that nice chief executive of Anglo, Seanie Fitzpatrick? Seanie just happened to be the son's boss, but no matter.

Seanie Fitz was delighted. He accepted. Not great judgment by Seamus, but no matter.

Meanwhile, young Shay made progress in the treasury division of Seanie's bank on the watch of its head of treasury, Tiarnan O'Mahony.

Tiarnan was widely expected to succeed Sean in the top job at Anglo.

He didn't. That honour went to David Drumm. Tiarnan headed off to do his own thing.

In the meantime, Seamus was dumped from the transport job by Bertie Ahern and demoted to Social and Family Affairs. Down in Social and Family Affairs there were not many state jobs in the new minister's gift.

Happily one plum came up in 2005. Seamus sought a chairman of Ireland's Pensions Board.

And guess what occurred to him? How about that nice Tiarnan O'Mahony? He just happened to be the son's boss at Anglo before he left last year, but no matter.

Tiarnan was delighted. He accepted. Not great judgment by Seamus, but no matter.

Tiarnan had formed a new specialist bank lending company called ISTC. He later lost €850m in the pursuit of profit. Most of it was other people's money, but no matter .

Tiarnan is still, miraculously, chairman of the Pensions Board despite serious criticisms of his continuation in the job after the €850m debacle at his company. Seamus stood by him. Tiarnan survived.

All this could be pretty compromising stuff for the son if we did not all know better.

Last week I asked Fianna Fail if Shay had worked under head of treasury, Tiarnan. They admitted that Tiarnan was his ultimate boss but explained that there were layers of little Anglo men between Tiarnan and Shay. Young Brennan was apparently pretty junior. In other circumstances, no doubt FF would have painted him as a financial giant in a go-go bank. Furthermore they insisted that he had gone through a thorough interview process before being employed at Anglo.

P.

NewDubliner

oceanclub wrote: »

Great piece by Shane Ross today, one of the few literate people left working for the Indo:http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/george-lee-is-the-business-1734608.html
P.

Whatever about limited extent of Brennan junior's culpability in the Anglo train-wreck, it shows remarkably poor judgement of public sentiment to put up for election, anyone with any kind of Anglo-Irish Bank connection.

Is this some cunning plan or just FF arrogance?

ninty9er

Is it just me or has this got fvck all to do with Shay Brennan but an opportunity to mention his name and Anglo's in the same article with an election looming.

You're right, it is a cunning plan.

oceanclub

ninty9er wrote: »

Is it just me....

It's just you.

P.

gandalf

Well considering he works for Anglo Irish it wouldn't be hard to mention the two together.

It does raise the question on how he got the job and how get got promoted. I mean if Celia Larkin could get a loan from Irish Nationwide without following the normal procedure for loan approvals it is easy to assume that similar "arrangements" existed for other members of the inner circles of the FF political "elite" within organisations where FF seemed to scratch the backs of the people running them.

dave-higgz

Many people are taking a casual concern with George Lee's "impartiality". Shane Ross is just raising a casual concern over his main opponent. No one is accusing Shay of corruption or wrongdoing during his time at Anglo however all politicians are subject to public scrutiny and Brennan junior isn't exempt from that.

lostexpectation

nepotism ok but cronynism is too far for ninetyffer

AlekSmart

I believe most folks are failing to reaise that Senator Ross`s real target here is the unhealthy trinity between Government/Private Banking/Public Administration.

I believe that the Brennan lad`s position and the methodology and timeline of his ascendancy are merely tools in the Senators descriptive armoury.

Two validly questionable appointments to highly important positions in the semi-public sector....Is there something wrong with this Irish Administrative "Tradition" being questioned.

As an aside,it does go to show the value of Seanad Eireann as a place in which such stuff can be ruminated upon and spat out !! :eek:

ninty9er

lostexpectation wrote: »

nepotism ok but cronynism is too far for ninetyffer

Nepotism is when people get appointed because of who their connections are, Shay Brennan was selected from an electorate of 92 registered delegates. I despise the ideas of nepotism and cronyism, but I would equally consider someone a complete moron for suggesting someone be discounted because of who their parents are/were.

sceptre

ninty9er wrote: »

I would equally consider someone a complete moron for suggesting someone be discounted because of who their parents are/were.

I'd totally agree with that.

Moreover, I'd add a corollary and consider someone a complete moron for suggesting someone be proposed or elected because of who their parents are/were.

Joey the lips

And gobsh1ts in this country wonder why sheamus brennan, martin cullen, mary harney and Michanel Mc Dowell were pushing for priviatisation.

There is always an "I told you so" angle to most things including the sell off of eircom but nobody cares and then argues and moans with this occurs. Jesus you think this is still not happening!

Why is it the papers get so smug in reporting this? I tell you why! They like a lot can see it coming but its rantings like I am doing to point it out before, its sensational afterwords!

I love the fact that on another thread "Normal" people are berating the unions for standing up for us but getting screwed left right and centre by the privatisation forum!

Yes we are a nation of begrudging moaney baxtards who would rather give lip service than make a stand. I am delighted fair play to sheamus for making us look like feckers!

gizmo555

ninty9er wrote: »

Nepotism is when people get appointed because of who their connections are, Shay Brennan was selected from an electorate of 92 registered delegates.

In his acceptance speech, Mr Brennan thanked the 80 delegates, saying that their decision was “first and foremost” a tribute to his late father “and an acknowledgment of the very significant contribution that he made to local and national politics”.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0507/1224246059524.html

It seems clear that even Shay Brennan himself acknowledges that he was selected because he is his father's son and for no other reason. By your own definition, that's nepotism.

John_C

oceanclub wrote: »

It's just you.

P.

It's not just him, there are at least 2 of us.

sceptre

It's a lot easier than that if you just want to mention his name in the same sentence as our most beloved of banks.

A demonstration:
"Shay Brennan, an employee of Anglo-Irish bank..."

Can be used in multiple contexts so watch out for it as you eat your fish and chips.

You might be better off suggesting that this is a conspiracy to keep him out in favour of that nice George Lee guy. But it's too late to do that now. The real point of the article, as AlekSmart said, appears to be the suggestion that Seamus Brennan could have appointed these guys to give his son something of a nice float to the top. Small country as we are with everyone having a two-step connection to everyone else, did he declare this possible conflict of interest? Ask anyone whether the call he was making was publicly defensible if someone asked the question of whether his son's employment was a factor in any way?

This may look like small cheese compared to the elected representatives across the water claiming expenses for cleaning their moats and swimming pools, which in turn is small cheese compared with the bigger picture of whether wars are justified. However, given the concern by people of the corruptibility of our elected representatives based on revelations in recent years, it's a relevant question and a relevant issue - it should be an issue for anyone running for political office, regardless of party affiliations. Has anyone asked Shay Brennan if he thought his dad was greasing the wheels? Seamus obviously is dead so we can't ask him. But as always in public office, you need both to be clean and be seen to be clean. This may or may not be the former but it really doesn't look like the latter.

Where does Shay Brennan fit into all this? He was pretty adamant after his selection that part of the reason he is running is to continue his father's legacy. Right or wrong, this is part of the legacy he's planning on continuing.

gandalf

I see his sister is running for the local elections as well. No wonder we are in the state we are when you have this limited gene pool being groomed for public office.

I would be in favour of limiting the maximum terms that a TD could hold his seat for to 2 or 3 terms and to restricting the ability for a relative to run in same constituency for at least a 1 term gap. It should help to counteract this so called cult of family dynasties that the big parties seem to be locked into.

lostexpectation

ninty9er wrote: »

Nepotism is when people get appointed because of who their connections are, Shay Brennan was selected from an electorate of 92 registered delegates. I despise the ideas of nepotism and cronyism, but I would equally consider someone a complete moron for suggesting someone be discounted because of who their parents are/were.

and there's probably some local person, who working away as ff activist for years who mighty pissed off.

serfboard

gandalf wrote: »

I see his sister is running for the local elections as well. No wonder we are in the state we are when you have this limited gene pool being groomed for public office.

No wonder we are in the state we are when people keep voting for this limited gene pool.

Current dynasties (without too much thinking about it):

Kitts 3 - Tom, Michael and Aine (Brady)
Lenihans 3 - Mary (O'Rourke), Brian and Conor

and, if he gets elected,

Aherns 3 - Bertie, Noel and Maurice

GSF

serfboard wrote: »

No wonder we are in the state we are when people keep voting for this limited gene pool.

Current dynasties (without too much thinking about it):

Kitts 3 - Tom, Michael and Aine (Brady)
Lenihans 3 - Mary (O'Rourke), Brian and Conor

and, if he gets elected,

Aherns 3 - Bertie, Noel and Maurice

God help us if the Kitts, Lenihans and Aherns start breeding with each other. :eek:

CJhaughey

GSF wrote: »

God help us if the Kitts, Lenihans and Aherns start breeding with each other. :eek:

You would end up with a pack of.................Mongrels.

bijapos

Speaking of which my girlfriend saw Shay Brennan and ca 15 of his helpers/canvassers setting off from the Yellow House in Rathfarnham yesterday. He canvassed a couple of her friends houses, seems hes using the "a-vote-for-me-is-a-vote-for-my-fathers-legacy-in-this-area" spiel. When questioned as to what position he held in Anglo Irish he told one of the girls he was "a clerk". :rolleyes:

oceanclub

One TV3 now, he has just said he's a ""manager in the treasury department" and "middle management". If he told anyone he was a "clerk", he was a liar.

He's pretty terrible, stammering and telling people we should vote for Fianna Fail because they put in the M50.

P.