Irish Government warns Martin McGuinness election will damage US investment

Senior minister warns of impeachment danger if Sinn Fein man elected president

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Government Minister Phil Hogan has claimed that the election of Martin McGuinness as Irish president would appall American multi-nationals and deter foreign investment.

Hogan launched the bitter attack on the Sinn Fein candidate for the Irish presidency in an interview with the Sunday Independent newspaper.

He has gone so far as to claim that a success for McGuinness at the polls would leave Ireland looking like a ‘banana republic.'

Environment Minister Hogan said: “Putting Mr McGuinness in charge of this State would leave us looking like a Banana Republic which could denude Ireland of serious levels of corporate investment within 24 months.”

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He then claimed that American investment in Ireland would be seriously damaged by a McGuinness success.

“US multinationals would be appalled at the message this would send,” continued Minister Hogan.

“Our competitors for multi-national investment, who are across the water, would not be slow to start whispering about the terrorist in the Park.

“The United States is understandably hostile to the notion of former terrorists, who were once close to regimes such as Libya, holding the Presidency. Such an outcome could denude Ireland of serious levels of corporate investment within 24 months.

“Electing McGuinness could do irreparable harm to Ireland’s international reputation. We have spent six hard months dragging Ireland’s name out of the gutter.

“The results of this are being seen in our decreasing bond yields, by the real likelihood that at some point in the next three years we will be in Dublin Airport saying goodbye to the Troika.

“But should we elect a President, as ambassador of this State, with a past that is as murky as McGuinness’s, we will undo all that work.”

Unlike his party leader and PM Enda Kenny, Hogan has not been slow to criticize McGuinness and his role as an IRA man in the Troubles.

The Minister added: “We would not be just electing Mr McGuinness as President. We would be legitimizing a lot of very shadowy people hanging around the fringes of Mr McGuinness.

“Could we assume, for example, that close associates of Mr McGuinness such as Mr Slab Murphy would not be invited to special garden parties in the Aras?

(Murphy is a former suspected IRA leader long suspected of fraud on a massive scale)

“A constitutional crisis could arise, should further information in relation to the murky past of Mr McGuinness emerge.

“The absence of an impeachment process within the Irish Constitution means that we could be heading for an unprecedented stand-off - where both Houses would vote ‘no confidence’ in Mr McGuinness but he would refuse to resign.”

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