Dog’s chairman first out of traps in multi-million business empire

PASCHAL TAGGART has had an interest in so many companies and business concerns, it would be easier to list those he has had nothing at all to do with.

The 62-year-old has hit the headlines on more than one occasion in recent years, thanks mainly to his business interests ranging from newspapers to shopping centres to computer software.

It is his role as non-executive chairman of The Irish Greyhound Board, however, which has led to the latest controversy. Mr Taggart has been in the big chair since December 1995 when he was appointed by Fine Gael Minister Ivan Yates.

The organisation has received over €70 million since the commencement of the Horse and Greyhound Racing Fund in 2001 and a nominal fee of €10,158 is allocated for the chairman.

However, Mr Taggart said back in 2000 that he did not take the then €3,810 fee or expenses due him for occupying the position.

He is also known to have friendly relations with Sports Minister John O’Donoghue who appointed him on a new task force to carry out a review of the Irish tourist industry in January 2003. It is understood that Mr Taggart also admires Tánaiste Mary Harney and is friends with Fianna Fáil Deputy Joe Walsh, to whom The Irish Greyhound Board was answerable up to the last General Election, and that he has a friendship with Fine Gael’s Jimmy Deenihan. He has also attended the Fianna Fáil tent during Galway Race week.

Mr Taggart also has plenty of allies among the board members of The Irish Greyhound Board, as evidenced by the unanimous decision to fire chief executive Aidan Tynan last week. Among them is Tony McKenna, a former Fianna Fáil senator, while Frank O’Connell is also understood to have links with Fianna Fáil.

As for another board member, Cathal Curley, Mr Taggart is believed to have told Mr O’Donoghue that he would walk unless Mr Curley was re-appointed to the board in 2002. The last civil servant member of the board, Helen Nugent, resigned last year.

For the man behind the development of the Jervis St shopping centre in Dublin, it is business that makes the world go round, with the greyhounds an enjoyable sideline, although even here he tasted success when he was co-owner of the 1984 winner of the Irish Derby.

Moreover, it has been a business career of ups and downs since his big breakthrough in 1987.

Thanks to monopoly restrictions then in place, Dunnes and Quinnsworth were unable to bid for the stores left by the collapse of H Williams, leaving the way open for Mr Taggart and businessman Noel Smyth to snap up the stores for €15.24m, and then sell them on to the supermarket giants for €20.32m.

Mr Taggart, a former Antrim footballer who held accountancy posts at the Inland Revenue and Spicer and Pegler in London before embarking on a business career here, has held chairmanships at Frawley’s Department Store, Computerland, ITG, Orbiscom and the Jervis Street Centre, among others, and was also involved in the doomed Century radio station in the late 1980s.

In June 2002, Mr Taggart became chairman of the new company, BPA, formed after the merger of Dublin printing companies BP Colour and AluColour.

In November 2002, Noel Smyth sold his 26% stake in the Dunloe Ewart property group to Mr Taggart for €47.2m. The stake was later sold on to Liam Carroll, and it is believed Mr Taggart made the most money thanks to his quick dealing.

By 2003, Mr Taggart held 0.24% of the Dalatex company, of which he was also a board member, and transferred 100,000 shares in the Irish travel software firm to his daughter Elva, and in June of last year he bought another 105,000 shares.

On the downside, he was chairman of one of Dublin’s oldest advertising agencies, Doherty’s, when it ceased trading in 2003 with debts estimated to be millions.

He was also chairman of the Ireland On Sunday newspaper when it established itself here in the late 1990s, and was chairman of the Dublin Daily newspaper which folded just four months after it launched in early 2003.

His latest business enterprise was to secure a stake of almost 2% in the Jurys Doyle group at a cost of €19.3m late last year.

In addition to all this, he is a former director of Rosslough Holdings Ltd, a former partner in Bastow Charleton and Gilmore Taggart, and even his stint as an accountant was put to good use as tax adviser to Tony O’Reilly for 12 years.

Nor is this the first time that Mr Taggart has become embroiled in controversy while at the helm of Bord na gCon.

Back in February 2002, the bord’s then regulation manager John Garrahy alleged before the High Court that he was bullied by then chief executive, Michael Field, and that Mr Field and Mr Taggart were behind an orchestrated attempt to remove him from office.

Mr Taggart maintained the allegations were false. The case was settled out of court.