The Mary Reid Story
01 January 1991
The Mary Reid Story
artdoc May=1993
According to sources within the European Commission, the British
Security Service, MI5, is actively involved in blocking staff
from taking up posts after they have been appointed. Concern is
particularly centred on Ray MacSharry's office, DG VI, which
covers agriculture (MacSharry retired from the Commission in
December 1992). Within the last three years, two Irish people
have been recruited only to be told subsequently that they could
not take up the post and a third failed to have her contract
renewed.
MacSharry's former press secretary, John Cooney, was told in
June 1990 that he would be given a three-year contract as
Spokesman for Agriculture. Instead he was given two short-term
contracts of five and seven months. Cooney's case is set out in
the Official Journal of the European Communities. He has lodged
a claim of around Ã300,000 for substantial material and moral
damages with the Court of First Instance. The second case
concerns an Irish woman who was highly placed in MacSharry's
Cabinet. MacSharry's departure has been used as the occasion for
not renewing her contract.
The third case involves the deputy director of the Commission's
LEADER programme. The details of this case suggest that French
and British intelligence agencies may have co-operated in vetting
the appointment. The LEADER programme exists to support rural
development initiatives and to create a network of groups
throughout the EC. In total, the programme is costing about Ã1
billion with an EC direct contribution of around Ã300 million,
just under Ã3 million of which is being spent in the North of
Ireland. The political significance of the programme in the Irish
context is that it concerns underdeveloped rural areas with
strong nationalist traditions in the border areas of Northern
Ireland and the Western Irish counties from Donegal to Kerry.
Writing in the first issue of Info LEADER in March 1992,
Commissioner Ray McSharry states: `The transnational network
which is the process of being established is one of the essential
features of LEADER. The major role in this respect is being
played by the coordinating unit which is run by AEIDL, the firm
which has been awarded the contract after competitive tender. I
wish them every success in this task, and in particular to the
recently-appointed head of the project, Yves Champetier, and to
Mary Reid, the deputy head, who is expected to join him soon'.
Mary Reid, however, never did take up her three-year post.
Shortly before Reid was due to take up office, she received a
telephone call from Philip Lowe, the Director for Rural
Development at DG VI. Lowe said that there were budgetary
problems within AEIDL (Association Europenne pour L'Information
sur le Development Local) and some administrative delays, but
that he expected to see Reid on the 1st September (1992), the
agreed starting date. Lowe would not specify what the problems
were. When September arrived, Reid still had no word of what was
happening but gathered that the problem would be resolved once
a key Commission decision-maker came back from a business trip.
In mid-September, Lowe told Reid that she would not be employed.
Writing to Reid on 1st October 1992, Lowe repeated the
`administrative and budgetary problems' reasoning and went on to
say `I do not believe there should be any grounds for thinking
that your reputation in the rural development field may suffer
as a result. Your work is widely respected not just at local
level and I am sure that your qualities will not fail to come to
the notice of those involved in new rural initiatives in Ireland
and elsewhere.'
This was an extraordinary about-turn for the Commission. Reid
had first been approached about the assistant directorship in
December 1991 by AEIDL. As Lowe had only recently taken on
responsibility for LEADER, he insisted on taking personal charge
of recruitment to the LEADER centra