Frank Fahey

Frank Fahey (born 6 June 1951) is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician. He is currently a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Galway West constituency.^[1]

Frank Fahey was born in June 1951 in Galway. He was educated at St. Mary's College, Our Lady's College and University College Galway. He was a school teacher before he entered politics. Fahey was first elected to Dáil Éireann at the February 1982 general election.^[2]

Ministerial career

In 1987 he was appointed Minister of State for Youth and Sport (an appointment which did not carry cabinet rank). This was a particularly successful era for Irish sport: Stephen Roche won the Tour de France, and the Irish soccer team qualified for Euro 88 and Italia 90. Fahey lost his Dáil seat at the 1992 general election. He was, however, appointed to Seanad Éireann, serving in the 20th Seanad until 1997. Following Fianna Fáil's victory at the 1997 general election Fahey returned to the Dáil and was appointed a Minister of State with special responsibility for Children. In January 2000 he was appointed to the Cabinet as Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources. One of his last acts in office was to approve the foreshore license for the controversial^[3] Corrib gas project.^[4] In September 2002, he was accused of interfering in the planning processing by Mayo TD Michael Ring, who said:^[5][6]

According to Village magazine on 19 July 2006:^[7]

Following the re-election of the out-going government at the 2002 general election, Fahey was not retained in the Cabinet as a senior Minister. Instead he was appointed as a junior Minister at the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. He was re-elected at the 2007 general election but he was not appointed to any ministerial office.^[8] Fahey was however appointed to head the joint Oireachtas committee on Transport.

Lost at sea scheme

In 2000, Fahey as Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources launched the Lost at sea scheme which was to provide compensation to those fishing vessels, which were lost at sea.^[9] It transpired that three quarters of the €2.8m compensation scheme for fishermen went to only two people, both of whom were constituents of Fahey. In 2005, the Ombudsman Emily O'Reilly, in an interim report, described the Lost at sea scheme as "seriously deficient and flawed".^[7] It was further revealed by Ireland on Sunday that Fahey "had consulted with the two fishermen four months before he introduced it; that he wrote to the two fishermen telling them they were approved before the application process closed; and that the rules were changed to benefit one of them."^[10]

Investments and property

The Irish Times reported in 2006, that in 1994, when Frank Fahey was a Senator, on a modest salary of £19,486 (€24,747), he became involved in establishing a hair and beauty salon business in Moscow involving an investment of over £200,000 (€254,000).^[11][12]

Fahey has assembled a very extensive property portfolio. Some are registered in his own name while others are held in partnership with relatives of associates These are located in his native Galway city and county, County Clare, Limerick, Dublin, France, Belgium, Portugal, the United States and Dubai. Fahey also owns or has shares in, shops and development land as well as six houses and 10 apartments in Ireland.

He caused controversy in Galway after speaking at a seminar organised by 'Remax Auctioneers' held at the radison Hotel in January 2009. He spoke at the conference urging first time buyers to "buy now as houses prices were as low as they would go". House prices in Galway have seen a 20%-30% drop in the previous 18 months with little sign of the market stabilising. A number of people have questioned his judgement in the matter, as the seminar was organised by Remax Auctioneers and speakers were drawn from what could be seen as the "vested interests" in the property market in Galway. As of 2009, there were many people with negative equity on their properties, who had bought within the previous five years. A number of people have questioned the wisdom of the Fianna fail TD speaking at the seminar encouraging young people to buy now, despite many economists predicting further price drops in the housing market up to 2011 and 2012 and further exposing people to the danger of negative equity on their properties. Also speaking at the seminar was Bank of Ireland manager Pat Fleming, solicitors from Bell and Carroll and mortgage providers 'Simply mortgages'.^[7][13]

Fahey was accused of and then denied saying that he had "no involvement" in the hairdressing salon. Nor had never made a secret of being involved, he said, and had travelled to Moscow "as an ordinary citizen to support the investors including my wife who were attempting to set up a hair salon there". He claimed that "the whole thing was part of a regional political campaign by a number of individuals to do damage to my integrity, character and good name".^[14]

Committee on Procedures and Privileges, July 2006

Fahey wrote to this Committee citing the remarks of Trevor Sargent in the Dáil when Sargent referred to Fahey as a dodgy builder and accused him of being able to avoid tax in building up a multi-million euro property empire and failing to declare interests in a Moscow hairdressing business. Sargent also maintained that Fahey had given 75% of the total State compensation for fisheries vessels lost at sea to two constituents (of Fahey's) and giving half of Ireland's mackerel quota to one boat, the Atlantic Dawn.^[15]

Fahey failed to secure the necessary 75% committee vote to censure Sargent and his failure embarrassed and annoyed his Fianna Fáil colleagues.

References

External links

• Frank Fahey's official website
• Frank Fahey's page on the Fianna Fáil website
• Standards in Public Office Commission

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