Shannon saga - Independent report badly needed

The Opposition was in full cry yesterday, attacking Transport Minister Noel Dempsey in relation to what he knew and when he first learnt about the Aer Lingus decision to move its Heathrow operations from Shannon to Belfast.

It is still not clear when the minister actually learnt about the planned move, but there is no doubt he should have been aware on his first day in office on June 14, 2007.

Documents obtained by the Irish Examiner under the Freedom of Information Act indicate that a member of management in the Department of Transport drew up a document on June 13 for the minister’s attention, warning of the impending decision. The assistant secretary of the department was so concerned about that information that he contacted Dermot Mannion, the chief executive of Aer Lingus, on the same day to discuss the matter.

If the assistant secretary of the department thought it was so important to contact Mr Mannion that day, why was the note prepared for the minister not forwarded the next day, when Mr Dempsey was appointed? There have been suggestions, of course, that this may have been in the tradition of Sir Humphrey in Yes, Minister, shielding his minister from an inconvenient truth. But in the wake of the Travers Report into the nursing home payments debacle, the behaviour of ministers of this government smacks more of the bungling in Fawlty Towers.

This latest controversy is not about Aer Lingus moving some operations to Belfast; it is about the workings of government. The elected politicians are supposed to run the government — not the civil servants. Did senior civil servants withhold information in this instance? From the outset there were suggestions that it was incredible to think that the management of Aer Lingus would not have sounded out the Government before taking such an important decision. Aer Lingus was set up in the national interest with public money, and the Government retained a “golden share” to protect the public’s interest, with the result that it seemed inconceivable that the company would have made such a decision without first sounding out the Government.

The company knew the department was aware it was seriously considering the move to Belfast.

In those circumstances the Government’s silence could only have been interpreted as either indifference or acquiescence to what was about to happen in relation to the Shannon-Heathrow flights.

Mr Dempsey said yesterday that he is waiting for a report from the secretary general of his department into what happened. Waiting for the department to investigate itself is absurd.

There must be an independent report.