Joanne Grehan

How top Mayo businesswoman found herself the victim of a US dirty tricks campaign.

JET-SETTING Joanne Grehan regularly crosses the Atlantic in her role as Mayo Enterprise Board chief executive.

She flew to the US at least twice last year with a delegation from Mayo County Council.

In March, the local authority in Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s home county spent €2,690 sending a group of five led by county manager Peter Hynes to New York.

Fine Gael councillor Cyril Burke, former councillor John O’Malley and Fianna Fail’s Damien Ryan were also part of the delegation.

Hotel receipts for the trip show the group stayed in the €171-a-night Helmsley Park Lane Hotel in Manhattan for three nights. The hotel faces on to New York’s famous Central Park and offers stunning views of the New York City skyline.

Ms Grehan and Mr Hynes were also part of a delegation which visited Rhode Island last year.

Mr Burke and Mr O’Malley also went on the trip to America’s smallest state to develop cross-Atlantic business opportunities.

Speaking after the trip, Ms Grehan said the two regions planned to establish a platform for inward and outward investment. The same group travelled to Ohio and attended the Cleveland Mayo Society annual ball in October.

It was after the same event in 2012 that Ms Grehan and US politician Ed Fitzgerald were questioned by police at 4.30am when a member of the public reported the car they were in to the authorities.

At the time of the visit, Ms Grehan was a senior executive in the Western Development Commission. She was interviewed for the CEO post in the Mayo Enterprise Board a couple of days after returning from Cleveland and was offered the job a week later. She is scheduled to speak at an event in Cleveland in September.