SINN FEIN TD Pearse Doherty has been suspended from Dail Eireann after a row today.
He was ordered out after raising the appointment of the new Secretary General to the Department of Finance.
Deputy Doherty said the new Secretary General had been censured by the New York Exchange Commission in his previous role as CEO of a company.
When he refused to let up on his questioning, Deputy Doherty was told to “leave the house” by Ceann Comhairle Sean Barrett.
Mr Doherty told the Dáil that John Moran had headed up a company that was censured by the US watchdog agency.
However, a Department of Finance spokesperson said that the events cited by the US Securities and Exchange Commission had occurred in the New York office of Zurich Capital Markets before Mr Moran joined that office.
He said Mr Moran had been tasked to resolve the issue, and that the censure by the Commission was delivered after he had left the company.
Said Doherty afterwards: “Under the Order of Business, I raised the question of whether the new Fitness and Probity tests, introduced under the Central Bank legislation, to deal with bank appointments would allow for scrutiny of civil service appointments of those involved in finance-related departments as well.
“I raised the example of the new Secretary-General to the Department of Finance, who has replaced Kevin Cardiff. This is the highest position in the Department and I believe the Dáil should have full scrutiny of the position.
“I did not make any allegations against Mr John Moran.
“The fact is John Moran was a founding employee and later CEO of Zurich Capital Markets (ZCM).
“ZCM was found to have aided and abetted four hedge funds that were carrying out schemes to defraud mutual funds that prohibited market timing during the period 1999-2003. ZCM later received censure from the Securities and Exchanges Commission in the US and was ordered to pay $16.8 million in penalty, disgorgement and interest. This is all information in the public domain.
“I believe it is right and proper that all senior public appointments of this nature are scrutinised. There is absolutely no reason why they shouldn’t be.
“The fact that I have been suspended means I cannot introduce legislation which I had planned to this morning. This would bring NAMA under the remit of the Freedom of Information Act and remove application fees for FoI requests.
“It is ironic that in attempting to shine a light on a matter in the Finance Department, I have been suspended and now cannot move a bill which I believe would shine a light on the goings-on in NAMA. I will be now seeking leave to move this bill next week.”
Fine Gael and Labour TDs voted to suspend Deputy Doherty for two days.
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