To those few, those happy few, who esteem themselves regular readers of this blog, my views on the Labour Party, and the nature of the “alternative” offered thereby, will be well-known. At the risk of doing what’s written in the title, however, I wanted to bring something I just happened upon to (marginally) wider attention.

I’ve been having a wee dig in various registers of members’ interests. Nothing obviously untoward leaps out. Mary Harney owns shares in A.I.B. and B.O.I. Willie O’Dea owns shares in multiple African diamond-mining operations, as well as other oil and mining companies at home and abroad. There are no significant diamond resources in Chad, as far as I’m aware, but it’s easy to see how a possible conflict of interest may have arisen for a Minister of Defence elsewhere.

I’ll spare the blushes of the Dublin City councillor who, in declaring shares in Cadbury, listed Nature of Business as “Sweets” (ah, screw him, it was Dr. Chameleon himself, Bill Tormey.)

The most striking entry belonged to Ruairi Quinn, and is notably absent from the profile on his website. In the Dáil register, we find the following:

8. Remunerated Position ……. Chair, Fund Advisory Committee: 4th Level Ventures, 75 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2.

4th Level Ventures was a new one on me, so I took a toodle to Google and found the following depressing glimpse into the future of education.

The website’s masthead reads “Commercialising Academic Research”, and the company identifies its role thus:

4th Level Ventures is a €20 million Venture Capital Fund managed by Dolmen Securities. Founded in 2002, we are focused exclusively on investing in companies whose Intellectual Property arises from third level education institutional research. We are sector neutral, our expertise lies in the commercialisation of technology. Our primary objective is to commercialise the business opportunities that arise from university research. In Ireland, this output is being boosted by Government investment of €2.5bln for science research from 2002-2006.

Ruairi Quinn is Labour Spokesperson on Education and Science.

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