IT’S not a topic that concerns most people, but Michael Dawson has a serious gripe about the role Father’s Day plays. Then again, as chief executive of the Gift Voucher Shop, he has a vested interest in pumping up the attraction of these manufactured anniversaries.

“Birthdays are the most lucrative occasions for us. Then you have Christmas, Mother’s Day and weddings,” said Dawson. “But Father’s Day is well down the list when it comes to spending money on vouchers.”

On the whole, however, Dawson has little reason to complain. His company, which employs 56 people, has just completed a €16.2m fundraising. Turnover is expected to hit €100m this year. That’s a big number, but margins are razor thin.

In addition to the existing management, those stumping up new money include a founder, Conor Haughey, son of the late former taoiseach, as well as private and institutional investors. ACT Venture Capital is paying €4m for a 21% stake, valuing the company at about €20m after the cash injection.

This year has been a hectic one for Dawson. In February, he led a €3.4m management buyout of Fexco’s 76% shareholding of the company he founded in 2002, following a string of entrepreneurial successes and failures.

He is virtually on home ground discussing the deal in Buswells hotel, a popular haunt for Irish politicians who can escape to the bar when they want a break from the Dail. The 47-year-old spent the early part of his career as the national organiser for Fianna Fail.

“It was a really exciting time and it was my job to get new blood into the party,” he said. “It was at this time that people like Dermot Ahern, Noel Dempsey, Micheal Martin and Brian Cowen were beginning to come up through the ranks.”

Dawson was one of the taoiseach’s nominees to the Seanad when Charles Haughey was returned to power in 1987, after more than four years in opposition. Working as campaign manager for the late Brian Lenihan’s ill-fated run at the presidency in 1990, Dawson became one of his closest confidants as the candidate became embroiled in a political scandal and his bid for the top job began to crumble.

“I remember Brian turning to me in the helicopter as we left Kinsealy (Haughey’s home), after Charlie had asked him to resign. He asked me if he should step down. I asked him if he’d done anything wrong. He said no. I said if that’s the case, then don’t resign.” In the event, Lenihan was sacked.

That same year, Dawson’s entrepreneurial instincts were unleashed when Ireland qualified for the World Cup for the first time. In the pre-Celtic tiger era, Dawson realised a lot of people couldn’t afford to make the trip to the tournament in Italy.

“I came up with the idea of staging an event in the RDS, so I booked the Simmonscourt Pavilion to stage the World Cup Spectacular, with huge screens and an Italian village,” he said. “It was the largest World Cup event outside Italy.”

Dawson reportedly made a killing on the event, but lost most of it the following year with an ill-fated drive-in movie venture in Phoenix Park. “Met Eireann said it was the wettest winter on record. And while it was set up for 800 cars, only 200 turned up,” he said. “Every night we opened we knew we were losing money. It was the most disheartening, demoralising thing.”

In 1993 he came up with the idea of a musical lottery card and launched it as a joint venture with Rehab, a charity. “When you got the card and removed the ticket, it activated a chip and played a Christmas or birthday tune.”