O’Donoghue steps in where Bertie fears to tread
Mr Ahern broke from his annual holidays in Kerry last August to visit the site of a €20 million hotel being developed in Sneem by Louis Moriarty.
He was pictured with Mr Moriarty and was reported as lending his support to the development.
However, it subsequently emerged that Mr Moriarty was the director of Swalcliffe Ltd, trading as Dublin Waste, a company which had been centrally involved in illegal dumping in Co Wicklow.
Mr Moriarty and Swalcliffe were subject to numerous court actions as a result of the dumping.
Once those embarrassing details became known, Mr Ahern’s staff did their best to distance the Taoiseach from the developer.
A spokesman at the time said Mr Ahern had been asked by a Sneem local whom he knew to visit the development.
“The visit was not in (Mr Ahern’s) diary. It was not an organised visit in that way,” the spokesman said. “He had no prior knowledge of, or acquaintance with, Mr Louis Moriarty before the visit. The Taoiseach has absolutely nothing to say about any case pending in which Mr Moriarty may be involved,” added the spokesman.
While the Taoiseach was clearly embarrassed by being photographed with Mr Moriarty, his Arts Minister had no such problems this weekend. Mr O’Donoghue, in whose Kerry South constituency Sneem lies, happily posed for pictures with the developer at the official opening of the hotel.
A spokesman for the minister said Mr O’Donoghue was present in his capacity as a local representative because he wished to show his appreciation “for all the Moriarty family have done in terms of job creation for the Sneem area”.
The hotel was a “very important development” for Sneem, given its history of emigration, the spokesman added.
