Top US economist and adviser who was Zappone’s ‘good friend’ lobbied Samantha Power for UN role
RENOWNED international economist Jeffrey Sachs, who has advised three secretaries-general of the United Nations, lobbied to get a job for former minister Katherine Zappone, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
It has emerged that Ms Zappone was hoping to secure a job with the prestigious USAid organisation, led by Irish-born American diplomat Samantha Power, at the same time Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney was creating a job for her as Ireland’s first-ever UN envoy on LGBTQ+ rights.
The revelations emerged in correspondence obtained by the MoS from the US development agency, which sheds further light on how the former Dublin TD sought to reinvent herself after losing her Dáil seat in 2020.
Eminent economist Jeffrey Sachs made representations on Ms Zappone’s behalf just weeks after US president Joe Biden announced he was appointing Samantha Power as the new head of USAid.
The president made his decision in January 2021, before he had been sworn into office. Ms Power did not take up the job until she was sworn in by US vice president Kamala Harris in May 2021.
Before her appointment to USAid, Ms Power served as America’s ambassador to the United Nations. In a note to congratulate the Dublinborn diplomat on her appointment, Columbia University Professor Sachs made representations on Ms Zappone’s behalf.
In an email sent on February 25 last year – a day after Mr Coveney
‘She would love to get engaged in diplomacy’
asked his most senior civil servant at Iveagh House whether ‘Katherine Zappone could be of any use to our team in New York’ – Professor Sachs described the former children’s minister as a ‘good friend’.
In his email to Ms Power, Prof Sachs wrote: ‘Hi Samantha. Congratulations on your new assignment! I’ll be happy to help in any way. When you have a moment it would be great to catch up and discuss the global development challenges.
‘A good friend of Sonia and me, Katherine Zappone is eager to contact you to see if she might help at USAid in some way.
‘You may already know Katherine, who was Minister for Children and Youth Affairs in Ireland under Taoiseach Kenny (as a US citizen).
‘She’s now back in the US and would love to get engaged in the USG on global diplomacy. She’s extremely talented and wonderfully motivated.’
Ms Zappone did not respond to queries from the MoS this weekend.
Asked about why he introduced Ms Zappone to the USAid chief, Prof Sachs told the MoS, ‘I sent an email to Samantha Power to introduce Katherine and never heard back. I don’t know if they ever connected. I greatly like and admire Katherine Zappone so I was happy to make a few introductions when she arrived in NY’.
Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe previously confirmed that Ms Zappone contacted him to seek an introduction to Ms Power.
And text exchanges released by Tánaiste Leo Varadkar at the height of the ‘Zappone-gate’ controversy revealed Ms Zappone contacted Mr Coveney on February 22 – three days before Prof Sachs wrote to Ms Power on her behalf – saying, ‘I know Paschal has spoken with you about my interest to get an intro with Sam Power about possibility of working with her at USAid on women and girls/gender equality issues and LGBTQ issues’. Ms Zappone relocated to New York after losing her Dáil seat in the 2020 election. Shortly after her move, she contacted Mr Coveney about the possibility of working for Ireland at the UN.
Under the terms of her ill-fated appointment as Ireland’s first-ever Freedom of Expression UN Special Envoy, Ms Zappone would have received an annual stipend of between €10,000 and €15,000 for about 50-60 hours’ work a year.
The appointment, which was never publicly advertised, sparked major controversy as Fine Gael faced accusations of cronyism.
The fallout worsened after it emerged Ms Zappone hosted a ‘Farewell to Ireland’ party at the Merrion Hotel a week before her new role was approved by the Government.
As the controversy raged, Ms Zappone announced she would not be taking up the UN role.