US interests did not fund Libertas, insists Ganley

LIBERTAS founder Declan Ganley has rejected claims that US interests opposed to Lisbon funded his organisation’s campaign against the treaty.

The Irish Examiner revealed yesterday that Mr Ganley’s company, Rivada Networks, has contracts worth more than €200 million to provide communication systems to the US military. Elements of the US military establishment were believed to be hostile to Lisbon because it would have enhanced EU military capability if passed.

But Mr Ganley last night insisted none of the funding for Libertas came from US sources.

Speaking on The Last Word programme on Today FM, he said: “It’s not coming from any sort of these organisations” such as the US military or CIA.

The millionaire businessman admitted making a loan of €200,000 to Libertas, but said it was made up of “hard-earned money” which his wife and he had saved over many years.

A number of other people had made loans and hundreds of “ordinary people” had made small donations, he said.

The loan admission is the first time Mr Ganley has spoken in depth about the sources of Libertas’s funding and came after a day of bitter clashes sparked by the Irish Examiner story.

European Affairs Minister Dick Roche accused Mr Ganley of being a “class A+ hypocrite” because of his stance on Lisbon.

“Declan Ganley is calling for more openness and transparency in Europe yet the contract which was awarded to him by the US Department of Defence in September 2004 did not entail public procurement procedure whatsoever,” Mr Roche said.

“The emerging details of Declan Ganley’s business links with the US military raises the question once again as to what his motive was in opposing the Lisbon treaty with such a well-financed campaign. The Irish people have a right to know who is pulling his strings.”

But Mr Ganley rejected Mr Roche’s assertions as “baseless” as the two clashed bitterly on RTÉ Radio.

“This is just a reflection of Dick Roche’s play-school understanding of economics and business,” he said. “It’s very offensive, particularly in these economically straitened times, when people like Dick Roche get on and attack Irish entrepreneurship.

“If they had properly nurtured entrepreneurship, instead of a stamp duty-collecting, property-inflating, bubble-producing economic process, we wouldn’t find ourselves in the situation economically that we’re in now,” Mr Ganley said of the Government.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny described the revelations about the value of Mr Ganley’s US contracts as “disquieting” and called for legislation to ensure more transparency in future referendum campaigns, as did Labour TD Ciaran Lynch.

“Unfortunately, we may never know the full truth behind the funding,” Mr Lynch said. “While political parties must account for money raised and spent in the course of a campaign, groups like Libertas are required to account for money spent, but are under no obligation whatsoever to detail how or where they received their funding.”

Environment Minister John Gormley, who has responsibility for the relevant laws, signalled he would tighten them ahead of any future referendum to ensure all political parties and campaign groups had to declare the sources of their income.