John Murphy: Civil servant at eye of the Shannon storm
That official was John Murphy, who told him that he had failed to forward a memo to him around the time of his appointment as minister that would have made him aware Shannon Airport was in danger of losing its slots.
Mr Murphy, now at the eye of the ‘ShannonGate’ storm, is one of six assistant secretaries in transport.
He is the official with overarching responsibility for aviation matters.
Mr Murphy has been a civil servant for three decades having started his career with the then-Department of Labour in 1976. He transferred to the Revenue Commissioners in the late-1980s and later moved to the Department of Finance.
In the mid-1990s he transferred to a senior position in the Department of Finance where he was promoted to his first assistant secretary post in 2001, overseeing the roads programme.
His post transferred when the new department was created in 2002 and Mr Murphy was put in charge of a hugely ambitious roads programme, with a budget running into billions of euro for the first time.
When a new minister, Martin Cullen, came into the department in October 2004, Mr Murphy was given new responsibilities and put in charge of aviation policy.
This was a critical policy area for the Government, involving the privatisation of Aer Lingus, the splitting up of the State airport company and the expansion of Dublin airport.
Given his areas of responsibility, Mr Murphy is highly regarded and considered able and experienced. This is demonstrated by his prompt action in immediately phoning Aer Lingus chief executive Dermot Mannion on June 13, when he received the memo about Aer Lingus from his principal officer.
In that conversation, he outlined the implications the transfer of Heathrow slot to Belfast would have for Shannon Airport.
But in what is seen as an uncharacteristic slip, he did not follow it through by passing on the
memo, or a record of his phone conversation, to Mr Dempsey.
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