Successful entrepreneur Taggart enjoys cross-party appeal

ENTREPRENEUR Paschal Taggart has been highly successful at establishing warm political relationships stretching across the party boundaries.

First appointed to The Irish Greyhound Board 10 years ago by the Rainbow Coalition, the businessman has been on good terms with Fianna Fáil for the bulk of his tenure overseeing a resurgence of the greyhound racing industry in recent years.

When the arch deal-maker walked off the board in 2004, Fine Gael TD Jimmy Deenihan rallied to his defence in the Dáil; Fianna Fáil Sports Minister John O’Donoghue was suitably impressed by Mr Taggart’s skills to help smooth over the row and the multi-millionaire was soon back at the helm. Like many of the nation’s most successful business figures, Mr Taggart has sampled the hospitality at Fianna Fáil’s legendary tent at the Galway races, where the great and good of commerce can rub shoulders and clink glasses with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and his senior ministers.

As befits a successful property developer, Mr Taggart has ensured the foundations of his relationship with the main political parties in the State are firm and secure.

His success in presiding over a sporting industry which has bucked international trends and is now worth over €50 million a year, has won praise across the Dáil.

Greyhound racing seems to hold a special place in the hearts of TDs with the Oireachtas boasting its own Leinster Lawn Syndicate containing 19 politicians from both main parties.

Finance Minister Brian Cowen even came up with the name for the group, which includes his Cabinet colleague John O’Donoghue.

The close connections with the sport raised some eyebrows when it emerged that the trainer at the centre of the doping row currently rocking the industry, Paul Hennessy, was in charge of the Leinster Lawn Syndicate’s prize dog Lotto Princess.

However, there is no suggestion that the connection has in any way influenced Mr O’Donoghue in his dealing with Mr Taggart.