Fine Gael accuses Government of ‘cover up’ on routes

THE Government was last night accused of engaging in a “cover up” to disguise its response to the Shannon crisis.

The opposition claims were strenuously denied by the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste yesterday, who rejected calls for a full statement to the Dáil.

Following yesterday’s report in the Irish Examiner which revealed that the Taoiseach’s top official knew of the potential pullout of Aer Lingus’s Shannon-Heathrow service, Fine Gael said it was not credible that no one at cabinet level knew of Shannon’s fate.

However, the Taoiseach said that his secretary had simply learnt the Belfast hub would be announced shortly and it would have “some implications for Shannon but meetings were ongoing” when he had discussed a different matter concerning Aer Lingus on July 27.

“The hub [Belfast] is around since mid-June. It was in the newspapers from mid-June.

“It was in a number of newspapers both North and South,” he said.

“I don’t think anybody really focused on what those implications would be and so far as there was any mention of it I think people thought — if you look at the Transport [department] notes that they thought these issues would be resolved — that it was just one option.”

If it had been clear to the Government and officials what the position was, the Taoiseach said, there would have been a “far greater chance” of the Government going to Aer Lingus and influencing the decision.

“Then we wouldn’t have had all the problems of the last three months,” he said. Fine Gael transport spokesman Fergus O’Dowd accused the Government of “hiding” its full knowledge of the Aer Lingus Shannon/Belfast switch of Heathrow slots.

“We now know that senior officials in the Taoiseach’s office and the Minister for Transport’s office knew well in advance of the public announcement that Aer Lingus were planning to switch their slots to Belfast,” he said.

“We only know this however because of investigative journalism by the Irish Examiner newspaper, not because of any declaration by the Taoiseach or his Minister for Transport over the months that this story has dominated the news.”