Fianna Fáil TDs told about records before release to Irish Examiner
Transport Minister Noel Dempsey briefed a meeting of the parliamentary party on Wednesday morning about the nature of the records that were being released to the Irish Examiner under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI).
In particular he mentioned the June 13 ‘Note for the Minister’s Information’, which revealed that department officials knew of the emerging situation six weeks before Aer Lingus opted to move its Heathrow slots to Belfast.
It is understood that senior and political advisers to the Government and to departments were also briefed on the same day.
The unprecedented inclusion of a ‘contextual note’ explaining the memo, plus the briefing to Fianna Fáil politicians, underlines the potential gravity and impact of the Irish Examiner Freedom of Information request.
It also shows the lengths that FF ministers went to avert a crisis.
Mr Dempsey and his advisers were fully aware that if the note addressed to the minister (which from the following day, June 14, was him after he replaced Martin Cullen) was published without explanation or context, it would have led to a major crisis.
On the same day, the Department of Transport finally answered a parliamentary question that Limerick Fine Gael TD Kieran O’Donnell had tabled consistently over many weeks.
It asked when Mr Dempsey had first become aware of the potential loss of the Shannon slots.
The answer was an abridged version of the information released to the Irish Examiner under FOI.
