Secrets of Croynism in semi-state sector

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Wednesday June 20, 2012 13:33 by Brian Flannery - Justice and Equality

What is going on inner circles Science Foundation Ireland (SFI)

In the last number of weeks I have been digging in relation to the newly appointed head of SFI Professor Mark Ferguson.

What I have found - seems to be slightly hidden from the Irish taxpayers. It is very subtle but yet constructive.

What I have found is completely fact and can be checked on Google and on various newspapers Ireland and UK. The one in particular I found most helpful was the Manchester Evening News.

Some months ago a friend of mine, a journalist in Manchester asked me if I had any idea what was going in the SFI (Science Foundation Ireland). I replied 'not a clue'. Jim came to visit the weekend just gone and gave me an insight as to how people in Manchester view, with anger, the appointment of Mark Ferguson as Director General of SFI. My facts state and these can be checked out by going on Google and looking up Renovo that this company had Stg1 million wiped of its value last year and that shareholders sustained a 75% loss in share price which I have no sympathy for because they took a gamble. However 200 people lost their jobs in Renovo and I have the deepest sympathy for them.

My friend informed me that Mr. Ferguson was told by the Minister Sean Sherlock and a Mr. Travers, a member of the Board of SFI that he had the job on the 23/12/2011 yet he was still Chairman of the fast ailing Renovo plc. Ferguson and his wife (and this is in the public arena) took £9.8 m stg from the company before moving to Dublin in January 2012. Ferguson took up the post of Director General 16/01/12. I see a conflict of interest here. Again I am not good at doing attachments but I would like to ask Opus, wageslave, serf and the other people on this site to try and help me get to the bottom of this rot. In the middle of all this, Ferguson has literally pushed out anyone who seems to be a threat to his total take over of SFI. My journalist friend went on to state that before he left Manchester he was jostled and tempers flared at the way he ran the company (which he & another founded in 1998) yet Minister Sherlock on Ferguson's own personal website states we have found the Jewel in the Crown - the man who will lead SFI to bigger and greater things globally. I find this hard to digest. I am still going through some headlines on this topic from the Manchester Evening news.

One more point I would like to make - the position according to my friend was advertised at 150,000 euros pa yet when I tried to contact Sherlock's office the phone was banged down. I know people in the last 2 weeks have been in touch with Deputy Clare Dally and I hope she can ask some serious quesions in the Dail before the summer recess.

Brian Flannery