Martin Shanahan’s sudden exit from IDA should raise eyebrows

There were no restrictions to prevent Martin Shanahan, who until this week was the chief executive of inward investment agency IDA Ireland, from walking out the door of the State body straight into a lucrative private-sector role advising the same foreign investors that until recently he wooed on behalf of taxpayers. Perhaps there should have been.

Shanahan left the IDA in something of a pickle this week, when he abruptly resigned and started a period of gardening leave before taking up a role as a partner with advisory firm Grant Thornton, as its new head of industry and foreign direct investment.

When Shanahan originally indicated his intention to leave in July, he indicated that he intended to stay on until early next year. Now he has walked out the door and the State’s inward investment agency has scrambled to appoint an interim chief executive to liaise with foreign investors, right at a period of increasing uncertainty in the global economy.

He is, undoubtedly, an excellent hire for Grant Thornton, which he says he wants to make the “first port of call” for advice for foreign investors looking to come into Ireland. Presumably, when he takes up his role at the firm, he will be able to advise foreign investors on exactly what sort of inducements they can expect to extract from the State, having been the person doling out most of them until this week.

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The former IDA chief was not an elected politician, but he was a public servant. At a European level, many former senior public servants must obtain the permission of the European Commission to take up private-sector roles, especially if they are related to their former positions. For example, Jean-Claude Juncker, former president of the commission, has had to ask his old employer for permission for two private-sector roles in the last year.

There is no such obligation on Shanahan. But he did occupy one of the most sensitive positions in the State’s enterprise machinery. Now, all the expertise he gained while doing so is for private hire.