The Irish Times has the news that UCD Microbiologist and wife of Michael McDowell Niamh Brennan will be named as chair of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority later today. The usual suspects are alternately praising and vilifying the appointment over on politics.ie.
On the face of it, the Green Party's effort to present the appointment as a conscious break from cronyism takes some neck but, to be fair to Brennan, she is a qualified accountant and a veteran company director. However, a quick look at Brennan's directorships gives some cause for concern. Given that the DDAI has taken considerable (justified) flack for its close links to Anglo Irish Bank, is appointing a director of First Active and Ulster Bank to nominally oversee the body really such a great idea?
Brennan also has a few State appointments under her belt too. She's a former non-executive director of Coillte (the State forestry company) and a former member of the audit committee for the Department of Agriculture and Food. Her previous non-executive directorship of Co-Operation Ireland (a worth cause) can't whitewash her involvement as a director of the HSE. And get this: Brennan chaired the Commission on Financial Management and Control Systems in the Health Services, which reported back in January 2003. To judge by what's happened since in the HSE, the ideas were either binned or failed spectacularly.
*UPDATE: It's official - RTE has the story.
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She is on the board of RBS owned Ulster Bank which lent Sean Dunne dough for the Jurys purchase.
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