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DECLAN GANLEY’S Libertas Institute spent over €5.6 million in the year of the second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, new accounts has shown.
New spending records for the institute – a private limited company – filed with the Companies Registration Office show that the institute boasted an income of just over €3.2 million for the year, but staff costs of just under €480,000 and operating charges of over €5.2 million.
The company ran an operating loss of over €2.4 million, the documents show, while it had debts of €2.02 million which were due to materialise within a year and another €1.6 million falling due in later years.
The accounts for 2010, however, show almost no change in either figure – and note that Declan Ganley, the company secretary and one of its two directors, signed a personal guarantee for €1.4 million to back loans from third parties.
It is not clear from where the company received other funding, as the Libertas Institute – which was never registered as a political party – was not required to make public disclosures about its political donations.
The company was owed just over €800,000 at the end of 2010, of which Ganley was owed €82,474.
Libertas Institute Ltd lost €53,720 in 2010, with income of €19,234 but depreciation of over €4,500, operating charges of just under €11,000 and interest of €55,908.
An independent auditor’s report furnished with the accounts outlines that the company’s liabilities are over €1.21 million greater than its assets – which would “indicate a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”
The company’s stated goal in the accounts is to “lobby to influence public opinion into the future”.
The significant spending in 2009 – in which Libertas campaigned unsuccessfully against the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty in a second referendum, and ran three candidates in the European Parliament elections – would more than match the similar spending of other parties.
Neither Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael nor Labour disclosed party donations in 2009; while each party did disclose donations to its election candidates, each party’s aggregate donations were in the tens of thousands.
And now we can see how right they were. If only the gobshites had listened to them.
Vote Yes for Jobs!
Exports have been booming, it’s just the domestic market that we wrecked with our property bubble. Sure it’s a crap slogan but then again there’s no 1.84 minimum wage, conscription to a European army, no babies being aborted etc etc etc. I can understand why people don’t like ‘yes for jobs’, I don’t like it either, but why is it that those same people have such a bad memory for the many no side lies, not one of which has come to pass. A bit of balance goes a long way.
@Gary
You mean like loss of soveriegnty?
Guess the upcoming treaty (if we’re allowed even have the illusion of choice) will also be about jobs ….. oh.. and the economy…… oh and the ATM machines… oh yeah and maybe getting our soveriegnty back too.
Don’t like Declan Ganley or his politics but on this Lisbon we’re in agreement.
What sovereignty have we lost?
The reckless actions of the government, the regulator and the banks has put us in a bad position, but make no mistake we as a nation put ourselves there. Ganley was claiming the Lisbon treaty did all sorts, the thing is the Lisbon treaty came into law in December 2009 over a year after the recession and the bank guarantee etc. So unless there was some sort of time warp it couldn’t have been caused by the Lisbon treaty.
And it was a real shame the majority didn’t listen – they have been proven right on everything so far
Mr Gantley is needed now more than ever. Hope he runs candidates in the Locals as its time for change!!!!
Time for change? Hasn’t the world realised yet that replacing one set of politicians for another changes nothing but the names and faces? And before anyone mentions Sinn Fein, just look to the North, and I’m from the North- what radical change has Sinn Fein brought to the table there?
Revolution means going round in circles.
Self reliance is the only way off this merry-go-round!!
You’re completely right Anne.
However, I believe Libertas stated aim was to prevent Ireland from coming under the influence of a whole upper layer of incompetent politicans and their cronies.
Unfortunately, they weren’t successful.
The world Anne ? Europe and the USA are not the world, the rest of us are doing fine thank you very much.
You’re quite right and apologies- sweeping generalizations can be a tough habit to break!
……though I do think this is a wider phemonemon than just Europe and USA.
Also, I said ‘only’ way off this merry-go-round…….’only’ is of course a wild exaggeration as there are probably many ways into a different future. I support Europe btw, just not this particular brand of it and anyway, politicians just seem to me so last year!!
Governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish – too much handling will spoil it.
Lao Tzu
I’m pro-Europe and don’t think much of Declan Ganley, but doesn’t anyone think that this is very opportunistic timing, releasing this info now, in the run up to a possible referendum?
Do you mean on the part of the media, or on the part of Libertas?
From our perspective, Libertas Institute Ltd only filed the accounts in the last few days, so the timing is not of our own choosing.
Crack open your children’s piggy banks, raid your grannies nestegg and send it to Libertas (looks like they need it!) and listen to them this time. Roll up, Roll up…
Most media twist and turn,,, flip and flop on issues they think they are the puppet masters
At least Declan Ganly was telling the truth and it never fails to amaze me how some people have to ‘like’ the person who is telling the truth before the will believe him….. No wonder we are in the state we are in!
Ok, well in that case it’s very… inopportune timing for them. Sorry Gavan.
It worries that he’s been able to have this much money behind him and his group, one way or another there’s an agenda here and it isn’t always in the interest of Ireland or the average joe.
Declan Ganley is a European federalist that has a share in a private financial institute that’s sole aim is to allow Irish people stash money offshore . The interests if the Irish people are not at the top of his priorities .
And the people we elected have proven otherwise?
Sorry what did he predict exactly?
It amazes me that people are so gung-ho for this guy with his business connections to the American military. He told a load of porkies about the Lisbon treaty, as anyone who reads it will see. Though I’d image he reckons rightly that most people won’t. Just because someone says what you want to believe doesn’t mean he’s on your side or telling the truth.
imagine not image
Yeah like kenny and co..
Well it depends on what they say and whether they have any evidence for it. If it can be proven then I’ll believe it. It’s why I like the Lisbon treaty, because I read it and don’t see the drama. Believe me it’s very very boring, it’s not even a tiny bit as dramatic as people make it out to be. Nor is there the mechanisms that people seem to think give it all sorts of controls over us. Honestly I wonder sometimes if it’s like telling the kids about the boogie man.
But Gary, what would you say then about Monti for example, an unelected Banker running Italy? I think it’s that kind of mechanism that alarms people. If we get rid of Edna etc, are we also going to have an unelected Gold. S’s man running Ireland?
We’ll again it all depends. The elected Italian government appointed the right man, for a limited time to deal with a crisis. He may have worked for Goldman Sachs (I didn’t check) but the main point is he has the experience they need. Does working for a particular business make him automatically unsuitable for the job? It not even the first time they’ve done this and is in keeping with their laws. I fail to see the problem.
Oh and something to ponder on is we have never elected Taoisigh or ministers to their jobs, no once as far as I know. We elect TD’s and by default the winning party leader becomes the Taoiseach. He then appoints ministers usually based on how much they’ve done for the party. Mary Coughlan was a minister here, Brian Cowen was Taoiseach, need I say more? Perhaps we should get our own house in order first.
Many experts are of the opinion that the “economic crisis” was caused by financial speculators- I suppose that’s why it seems strange to bring in the financial speculators to sort it out…………it would be kind of like an Irish politician making a balls up here in this small country and getting promoted to a major position in Europe……….oh yeah, of course, that happens too doesn’t it!
I wonder if the Greeks hadn’t killed Socrates ………… 500 years BCE ………… just the same!
Well yet again it depends. I don’t doubt that the banking crisis was caused by some reckless behaviour. And some of that will be dangerous financial speculation. However that doesn’t explain why so many governments borrowed big and lived beyond their means. Many others didn’t so it looks like that’s purely down to bad management.
Whatever the answers to this country’s problems, they certainly won’t be provided by Declan Ganley. He is an egomaniac and right-wing extremist who was quite happy to link up with shadowy, far right organisations across Europe. Here at home, he was lauded by the likes of ‘Alive’ magazine – an obnoxious and offensive publication which rails against the evils of contraception, gay rights and everything else that doesn’t conform to a 1950′s style Irish catholic mindset.
Ganley and his Libertas outfit are not concerned with a democratic deficit at the heart of Europe or anything even remotely along those lines. These people are ideologically opposed to European social and cultural values and prefer instead the approach of the neocons in America and elsewhere. His finances and source of funding should be rigorously investigated
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