Former Bertie Ahern 'spin doctor' Jackie Gallagher
Rónán Burtenshaw
Deputy News Editor
Jackie Gallagher, senior advisor to former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern for almost a decade and director of Q4 Public Relations firm, has been appointed to the Board of Trinity College by the Minister for Education and Skills, Mary Coughlan, following consultation with Provost John Hegarty.
The appointment itself occurred at the beginning of the academic year along with the appointment to the Board of another former Fianna Fáil figure, Dr. Olive Braiden, who ran unsuccessfully for the party in the 1994 European Parliament elections in Dublin.
Mr. Gallagher, whose Q4 Public Relations’ website also lists him as a member of the Board of Governors and Guardians at the National Gallery of Ireland and a former Director of the Museum of Modern Art, was appointed to the Board for a five-year term.
Prior to becoming a senior advisor to Bertie Ahern TD at the end of 1994, Mr. Gallagher had worked as a news reporter, sub-editor, business journalist and Industry and Employment Correspondent with The Irish Times. His work with Bertie Ahern began when he became party leader and focused on policy development and media management.
Mr. Gallagher remained as a special adviser to the Department of Taoiseach until just after the 2002 election, when he left to set up Q4 Relations. Described by current Irish Times Political Editor Stephen Collins as the “Taoiseach’s troubleshooter” and as a “PR Guru” and “spin doctor” by The Sunday Times, Mr. Gallagher was also mentioned in the famous “Bertie’s West Wing” article in the Sunday Tribune as an key figure in the Taoiseach’s office.
However, his career since then has courted controversy on a number of occasions. His PR firm, dubbed “friends of Fianna Fáil” in an Irish Examiner article, was chosen to market the government’s infamous e-voting system. The contract, described as “lucrative” by fellow Fianna Fáil supporter Eoghan Harris in a critical article, came to €4million.
The awarding of this contract to the Q4 firm, which is also run by former Fianna Fáil general secretary Martin Mackin, came in for staunch criticism from the opposition and the media at the time. This criticism heightened when it transpired that the media consultant of the Department responsible, Monica Leech, had a role in the evaluation of tenders for the project.
Ms. Leech, herself the subject of controversy for her €800-a-day salary at the Department of the Environment and her relationship with then Minister Martin Cullen, disputed any influence, saying that the committee choosing between the tenders worked on a consensus basis.
Q4 Public Relations was also hired by national price watchdog, The National Consumer Agency in 2005. The latest figures indicate that they have received €562,000 in fees from the body and the award of the contract was criticised by The Sunday Times and opposition parties.
The relationship between Q4 Relations and the NCA bears questioning also for the role of Bertie Ahern’s former partner, Celia Larkin, on the NCA board. UT can reveal that she herself had proposed to the board of the NCA in 2008 that Q4 be hired for a two-year period, after which the board granted it a contract worth €200,000.
In 2009 The Irish Times revealed that Q4 was working for both the National Consumer Agency and supermarket giant Tesco. This sparked further concern and media coverage, with Fine Gael Enterprise spokesman at the time questioning a potential “conflict of interest”.
In 2008, Q4 Public Relation was listed in an Irish Independent article entitled “firms and former officials cash in on connections with Government”. They were also hired to do public relations for the British-Irish parliamentary assembly, a talking-shop involving TDs and MPs.
Dr. Olive Braiden was appointed to the Board of Trinity College to fill the seat designated for a “representative of such business or professional interest as the Board considers appropriate”. She was selected from a group by the Board after they had solicited nominations from relevant organisations.
Dr Braiden was nominated by the Arts Council, where she has been chairperson since August 2003. She was establishing Chair of the Crisis Pregnancy Agency. She is also a Human Rights Commissioner, a board member of the Courts Services and a member of the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board. She was Director of the Rape Crisis Centre for 10 years.
Her bio on the Arts Council website lists her as having “served on many Government Working Parties and Steering Committees”. She has also served the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, the Board of the Courts Service and the Public Service Benchmarking Body.
The Irish Independent ran a story critical of her in 2003 entitled “The Uncrowned Queen of the Quangos”, which alleged that she had received “nearly 50 grand from political patronage”. However, for the purposes of this article, it is worth noting that she was selected by the Trinity Board. She was not appointed by the Minister.
The presence on the Board of two members with Fianna Fáil connections will be of concern in light of the fight the College underwent in the late 1990s to avoid an over-reaching political influence on the body.
The Universities Bill proposed by the Education Department of Minister Niamh Breathnach in 1996 had originally proposed that three seats be made available on the College Board for Minister’s appointees. Trinity College had previously had a more independent Board structure than UCD or other NUI Colleges, which had seen a large number of political appointees, including sitting Councillors.
There was a backlash at that time from the College, whose Senators fought against the Bill and had it amended. By the time it became an Act in May of 1997, the first Irish Universities Act since 1908, Trinity had secured a reduction in the number of Minister’s appointees from three to one.
Questions are also likely to be asked about the appointment of Jackie Gallagher to a position on a five-year term by the Minister for Education and Skills. With Fianna Fáil struggling to reach double digits in the polls and an election pencilled in for February, the legitimacy of this is open to question, even if history would suggest that it’s not an uncommon move.
College said of Mr Gallagher’s appointment “Mr. Gallagher was appointed to the Board of the College by the Minister for Education and Skills, Mary Coughlan, and as is normal for such appointments the term of office is for a period of 5 years. The Board looks forward to the benefit of Mr Gallagher’s experience and skills in its deliberations during his term of office.”
