BUSINESSMAN DECLAN Ganley has denied there are growing tensions within the Libertas party over his working relationship with Hot Pressjournalist Jason O'Toole.
O’Toole, who interviewed Mr Ganley for a feature article in the magazine last year, is considering writing a biography of Mr Ganley – the multimillionaire businessman who led Libertas’s successful No campaign against the Lisbon Treaty.
The journalist, who is author of an authorised biography of Taoiseach Brian Cowen, was among the guests at Mr Ganley’s dinner in honour of the Czech president Vaclav Klaus last year. He also attended the launch of the Libertas office in Brussels last month, which will co-ordinate the party’s campaign for the European elections in June.
A senior Libertas source said yesterday there was increasing concern within the party that O’Toole was exerting too much influence over Mr Ganley and, in particular, the communications policy of Libertas.
“He definitely has the ear of Declan and is giving him specific advice on communications,” the Libertas source said. Another Libertas member said some people were threatening to walk away from the party because of the influence they think Mr O’Toole is exerting over Mr Ganley. He said people are particularly concerned that he was vetting all interview requests for Mr Ganley.
Mr Ganley strongly denied yesterday that Mr O'Toole had any influence over him or Libertas. He told The Irish Timesyesterday that he had met him on only a handful of occasions and there had been no deal struck with him to write his authorised biography.
“This is complete rubbish . . . I’ve probably met you more than Mr O’Toole over the past few months,” said Mr Ganley.
O’Toole declined to comment when contacted yesterday.
Libertas is aiming to run candidates across Europe in the upcoming elections in an effort to turn the poll into a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.