Irish chemical millionaire 'guilty [only] of naivety' - McKenna

national | environment | news report Friday June 20, 2003 16:06 by anti caca pipi lala

Green Party closes ranks to protect capitalist speculator and environmental rapist

Ciaran Cuffe TD, the Green party's environmentalspokesperson, who admitted holding shares in companies linked to chemical dumping and arms was criticised by a colleague, but only for his political naivety.

Patricia McKenna MEP said the party had been seriously damaged by the revelations surrounding the Party's Environment Spokesman Ciaran Cuffe.

Mr Cuffe resigned as environment spokesman after it emerged he inherited £780,000 in shares when his mother died.

Many of them were linked to firms the party had campaigned against.

Although he did not buy the shares himself he was criticised for not acting earlier to get rid of them.

Ms McKenna said: ``Many of us were actually quite shocked when we realised that companies we had been campaigning against were companies that one of our elected TDs had shares in.

``Having said that, as everybody recognises, he didn`t go out and purposely buy them, he inherited them from his mother.``

But she added: ``There are two things he is guilty of.

``One is leaving it so long to address the question, and secondly not actually having the political cop-on to realise this time bomb he was holding considering he was environment spokesperson.``

Mr Cuffe was accused of being a ``chemical millionaire`` after a Sunday newspaper revealed he had one of the most valuable equity portfolios of any parliamentary member and that many of his shares were in ``politically incorrect`` ventures.

The newspaper article revealed that many of the companies Mr Cuffe had shares in featured in environmentalist concerns over the years.

The Dun Laoghaire politician admitted he had been naive to hold on to the portfolio.

Party leader Trevor Sargent said the incident was a lesson to everybody in the party.

He said the incident was an oversight and he was having to pay the price for it.

Mr Cuffe will continue as justice spokesman.