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Tánaiste Leo Varadkar is under pressure to clarify the legality of the appointment of former minister Michael D’Arcy to a mutual fund lobby.
D’Arcy, who joins the Irish Association of Investment Managers (IAIM), spoke at the Seanad last week in favor of a bill the funds have been pushing for for the past five years.
Both Sinn Féin and Labor have expressed serious concerns and asked Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and the Standards Committee in the Public Office (SIPO) for clarity on the appointment.
Under SIPO rules, ministers and ministers of state are prohibited from lobbying or being employed by a group engaging in lobbying activities for a period of 12 months.
Exemptions may be granted to this rule, however, Mr. D’Arcy has not requested such an exemption.
Last Wednesday, D’Arcy, who resigned from his position at Seanad, spoke in favor of the Investment Limited Partnership bill.
“From my experience, investors are significantly ahead of everyone else,” he told the house.
“It is the people with private equity funds and those who manage the money that will be crucial if we are serious about sustainable finance.”
D’Arcy, who was minister of state in the Finance Department in the last government, also said that the financial services sector, which employs about 16,000 people, “has been arguing, for about four and a half to five years, that without this legislation you cannot promote the private equity side of investing in Ireland. “
During the second reading of the bill, Darcy said that the current law was out of sync with that of other European countries in terms of limits on investment of association funds.
Questioning the legality of the appointment, Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty claimed that the IAIM lobbied D’Arcy in the past regarding millions of euros worth of tax breaks for multinational executives while he was a junior minister. .
“Michael D’Arcy of Fine Gael has been appointed CEO of this lobby with immediate effect, just three months after serving as Minister of State in the Department of Finance,” he said.
Labor Finance spokesman Ged Nash said a situation in which the Department of Finance becomes a training ground for corporate careers in the financial services industry cannot be tolerated.
“In 2015, the Labor Party introduced the regulation of the Lobbying Act to provide transparency, but also cut the revolving door between politics and big business.
“This would also be Fine Gael’s second junior minister in the Finance Department in recent years to assume a lobbying position in the financial sector and the perception that former ministers are being used to access the corridors of power, and in The formation of regulations and laws is deeply worrying “.
In a statement, IAIM said that Mr. D’Arcy is “fully aware” of the SIPO guidelines established regarding the responsibilities of former officials.
“As IAIM CEO, Michael D’Arcy will not engage in any lobbying activity, according to the reflection period for the first twelve months after leaving office,” the statement read.
“Michael D’Arcy has always fully adhered to the guidelines during his time as a politician and will continue to adhere strictly to them now in his new role at IAIM.”
Candidates for the Seanad seat now vacant by D’Arcy include former Senator Ian Marshall and former Carlow-Kilkenny CEO Pat Deering.
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