Shane Ross

Shane Ross TD
Teachta Dála
Incumbent
Assumed office February 2011
Constituency	Dublin South
Senator
In office October 1981 – February 2011
Constituency	University of Dublin
Personal details
Born	11 July 1949 (1949-07-11) County Dublin, Ireland
Nationality	Irish
Political party	Independent
Other political affiliations	Fine Gael (1993–97)
Spouse(s)	Ruth Buchanan
Children	2
Alma mater	University of Dublin University of Geneva
Profession	Stock broker, journalist
Religion	Church of Ireland (Anglican)
Website	www.shane-ross.ie

Shane Peter Nathaniel Ross (born 11 July 1949) is an independent Irish politician and Business Editor of the Sunday Independent. He was the longest-serving member of Seanad Éireann (representing the University of Dublin constituency), until he was elected to Dáil Éireann for the constituency of Dublin South at the 2011 general election.

Early life and career

Born in 1949, he is the son of John N. Ross and Ruth Isabel Sherrington. His father was a also representing the University of Dublin constituency from 1961–65. Ross graduated from University of Dublin in history and political science in 1971. A former stock broker, Ross is now Business Editor of the Sunday Independent, Ireland's biggest-selling weekend broadsheet. He is married to Ruth Buchanan, a former presenter and journalist with RTÉ, Ireland's national broadcaster.

He was first elected to the Seanad in 1981 as an independent candidate for the University of Dublin constituency, and was re-elected on nine occasions since, becoming the longest-serving member of the house.

He stood unsuccessfully as an independent candidate at the 1984 European Parliament election for the Dublin constituency. At the 1991 local elections, he was elected as a Fine Gael candidate to Wicklow County Council for the Bray electoral area, and served until 1999. He stood as a candidate for the party in the Wicklow constituency at the 1992 general election but did not gain a seat, remaining instead in the Seanad where he once again sat as an independent after the 1997 election.

Campaigning and activism

Ross is well known for standing up for small shareholders and consumers. In 2000, he and Eamon Dunphy championed the case of small shareholders of Eircom after shares in the former state-owned company dropped by more than a third in value in just over a year Ross took the Board of Directors to task over the level of salaries, bonuses and fees being paid and denounced a plan whereby senior management were to get share options at a value below the flotation price. At a shareholders' meeting in May 2005, Ross notably took up the cause of highlighting the monopolistic practices of tolling agency NTR plc. Ross persisted in drawing attention to the issue, criticising the National Roads Authority in August 2008 for its inadequate and confusing management of the M50 barrier-free tolling system, and was reported in The Sunday Times of London as having declared that "The removal of the barrier should have been cause for celebration. Instead, we have higher tolls, an administrative mess and pending chaos". In the aftermath of the voters' rejection of the Lisbon Treaty in its first referendum in June 2008 in spite of support for the treaty by the major political parties, Ross highlighted the "disconnect" between the ruling caste of the nation's politicians and the democratic will of the public.

In January 2009 he took the Central Bank of Ireland and Ernst & Young to task for their failings leading up to the nationalisation of Anglo Irish Bank, In his capacity as Senator, Ross pressed Allied Irish Bank executives on the bank's fraudulent offshore dealings involving subsidiaries and Caribbean front operations, charging that the only party to be disciplined in the affair was the whistleblower who brought it to light and forcing from the bank's CEO Eugene Sheehy the admission that the institution may have been in breach of the Companies Act. He authored an account of the Irish financial crisis later that year – The Bankers: How the banks brought Ireland to its knees. In October of that year Ross drew the ire of the public transport company CIÉ for publicising charges of widescale fraud and mismanagement within the semi-state organisation. He has criticised government inaction in voicing concerns about the Sellafield nuclear plant, and has called for stronger legal protection for whistleblowers in cases of fraud and corruption.

For his investigation into waste at the state training agency FÁS pursuant to the 2008 FÁS expenditure controversy, Ross was recognised by his peers as the 2009 Journalist of the Year. Ross is frequently featured as a source by international news media, and has been cited as "one of Ireland's foremost financial commentators" by the Associated Press.

2011 general election

On 15 January 2011, during the course of a television interview Ross announced that he would stand as candidate at the 2011 general election, running in the Dublin South constituency. He had refused an offer to run for the resurgent Fine Gael party and become an "insignificant backbencher", and was determined instead to stand as an Independent candidate, declaring: "I think you're going to see in this election a huge number of similar independents who want to put an end to cronyism, who want to see a change in the political system, who want to put an end to Civil War politics in Ireland, who want to see an end to the kind of tribal politics we’ve got, who are going to stand in the election as well". In the election Ross got the second highest vote in the country when he polled 17,075 votes in Dublin South to head the poll.

In April 2011 Ross claimed the Government was “wearing the clothes of the last government of Brian Cowen” in its economic policy. He asked why senior bondholders had to be treated in the same way as depositors. “They are completely different creatures,” he said. “Senior bondholders go out there and take a risk and make an investment.” Ross claimed that Enda Kenny’s greatest cheerleaders in his policy were in Fianna Fáil. “The support is coming from the last government,” he added. “And very few people can see the difference, if there is any, between this Government and the last government in its attitude to the banks.” Ross accused the Government of completely and utterly surrendering to the IMF and the EU. “They know that, we know that . . . everybody knows that,” he said. “Default, apparently, is the word which cannot be mentioned in this chamber.”

Publications

• Ross, Shane (2009). The Bankers: How the banks brought Ireland to its knees. Dublin: Penguin Ireland. ISBN 9781844882168. 
• Ross, Shane; Nick Webb (2010). Wasters. Dublin: Penguin Ireland. ISBN 9781844882519. 

External links

• Official website
• Shane Ross at the Sunday Independent

Oireachtas
Preceded by Tom Kitt (Fianna Fáil)	Independent Teachta Dála for Dublin South 2011–present	Incumbent