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The Government candidate for a seat on the board of the Standards Commission in the Public Office (SIPO) is a former senator from Fianna Fáil who has lobbied the Taoiseach on behalf of the now-defunct GP union NAGP.
Geraldine Feeney was a Fianna Fáil senator from 2002 to 2011 and has been nominated by the Government to fill the vacancy of a former member of the Oireachtas in the state ethics watchdog.
SIPO has been asked to investigate the transmission of a confidential document to the NAGP by Tánaiste Leo Varadkar. The lobbying record shows that Ms. Feeney officially lobbied on behalf of the NAGP eight times in 2017 and 2018, including a meeting in March 2017 with Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
The meeting, according to the registry, was held to “discuss best practices in health services” and now included MEP Billy Kelleher. The week before, Ms. Feeney had met with Deputy Minister Finian McGrath to “update him on the development of the new GP contract.”
Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty told Tánaiste Leo Varadkar that the appointment raised questions.
In response, Mr. Varadkar said that Ms. Feeney was being nominated on the advice of the Minister of Public Expenditure, Michael McGrath.
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