remaining instead in the Seanad where he once again sat as an Independent Senator following the 1997 election. He is one of Ireland's most visible business commentators, promoting free enterprise, small government and low taxes, and is widely identified as one of the most visible champions of laissez-faire capitalism in Irish politics, praising former Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy, as a "brilliant Minister in the boom years" and lauded McCreevy's controversial tax individualisation as "visionary". He profited from the boom in Irish land prices, selling his home at Carrickmines to a developer in 2004 for an estimated €4 million to €4.5 million an acre; however, he subsequently bought a house in Enniskerry, County Wicklow, for €6.2 million in 2005. Despite labelling himself as one of Ireland's foremost business commentators his record as a stock picker is mixed: as he noted himself, "my record when a stockbroker was so bad that Dermot Desmond rightly gave me my P45. ...if any readers are beginning to take me seriously, remember it was I who advised people to sell First Active Shares when they went public and subsequently quadrupled and it was I who told innocent investors not to touch Ryanair shares with a barge pole at the flotation. They rocketed." Shareholder activism Ross promotes himself as 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 fell in value by more than a third 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. He was also sharply critical of the decision to sell the mobile phone arm Eircell to Vodafone and later sought the dismissal of 5 board members at the March 2001 AGM, citing poor share price performance and poor acquisitions. At a shareholders' meeting in May 2005, Ross highlighted 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