Simon Coveney left a state board role he was responsible for open beyond the legal timeframe, rejecting at least two candidates, before finally appointing his close friend Paul Hyde, who would later become a convicted criminal.
The ex-taoiseach, ex-IDA CEO and ex-junior enterprise minister were among those taking credit for almost 90 bogus jobs purportedly created by a now-scrapped government initiative that ended in controversy.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar assured SIPO that he had internal procedures in place to avoid political donations over the legal threshold – despite previously accepting at least two such payments.
SIPO is investigating electronic payments to Leo Varadkar and his explanation as to why he hasn’t declared them in his annual declaration of donations.
Ex-taoiseach Enda Kenny, ex-jobs minister Richard Bruton and ex-tánaiste Eamon Gilmore took credit for almost 100 bogus jobs, which were to supposedly be delivered by a controversial, discontinued IDA scheme, in one 2013 announcement.
