Register shows Minister for Finance owns German bonds

The Irish Times - Saturday, April 9, 2011
Register shows Minister for Finance owns German bonds
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PAUL CULLEN, Political Staff

MINISTER FOR Finance Michael Noonan is an investor in German government bonds as well as share funds focused on China, India and the US, according to the 2010 register of interests for Dáil deputies published last night.

Mr Noonan, who has opposed “burning” bondholders in the main Irish banks, owns German government bonds paying a modest 1.75 per cent rate of interest and maturing in 2020, according to his entry in the register.

His interests also include popular share funds specialising in Chinese and Indian enterprises and metals and mining companies.

Mr Noonan listed occupational income in the form of a reduced teacher’s pension and his ownership of 20 acres of mixed pasture and woodland at his home in Foynes, Co Limerick.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny had nothing to declare apart from three gifts: honorary membership of the K Club golf course, life membership of Ballinrobe golf course and “captain guest” of Mount Juliet golf course.

He said he received an allowance from Fine Gael as party leader but had surrendered his entitlement to a ministerial pension.

Some 39 TDs made a “nil” declaration of interests, while 10 said they derived additional income from a teaching or lecturing pension, and three more said they were in receipt of other State pensions in addition to their Dáil salary.

Among those who made a “nil” declaration were Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan and former ministers Mary Coughlan, Mary Harney, Brian Lenihan, Éamon Ó Cuív, Barry Andrews and Martin Cullen.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore declared joint ownership of a house and 37 acres of land in Caltra, Co Galway, his former family home, which is let.

Minister for Justice and Defence Alan Shatter listed additional income as a solicitor, property owner and author. He owns shares in a builders providers and a sweet company and is listed as the joint-owner of 14 properties in Ireland, the US and England.

Minister for Health James Reilly’s extensive land interests include a commercial building in Lusk, the 86-acre former family farm and a share of a nursing home in Co Tipperary.

Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern continued his travels around the world last year on various speaking engagements or at conferences in Cambridge, Oxford, Berlin, Budapest, Washington DC, Nigeria, Frankfurt, China, Dubai and Switzerland. Mr Ahern listed additional income from his News of the World column, his membership of the Global Agenda Council on Conflict Resolution of the World Economic Forum and as a speaker for the Washington Speakers’ Bureau.

He also chairs the International Forestry Fund and Scientia Solar, a solar power company.

Former minister Willie O’Dea listed a number of exotic share interests in companies prospecting for diamonds and gold in Africa, and minerals in South America.

Former Independent TD Jackie Healy Rae, who has not ruled out a move to a bigger house in the park and running for the presidency, said in his list of assets that he retained the right to live in a room in a public house in his home town in Kilgarvan, Co Kerry, even though it is derelict