Dáil debates

Thursday, 18 October 2007

3:00 pm

Photo of Fergus O'DowdFergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

It is incredible that the Minister has given such a response. I find it completely unbelievable that he can state he did not see anything, hear anything or know anything. Neither his press office, his advisers nor his programme managers told him anything. I wish to ask the Minister a question in respect of the Taoiseach.

Is it not a fact that there is a media watch unit in the Department of the Taoiseach and that the Taoiseach, as he said on the record of the House, circulates media reports to the relevant Departments? Did the Minister receive such a report from the Taoiseach? The reports are here and the Minister could have seen them himself if he had done a Google search. They are on the Irish Independent and Irish Examiner websites.

My second question is about the credibility of the Minister. He seems to be saying that members of the Dublin Airport Authority, the Aer Lingus board, the Belfast groups, and the Department of Transport — at the level of assistant secretary — all knew about this issue and were talking about it, yet none of them spoke to the Minister about it. Nobody told the Minister anything. It is as though he were in an isolated cell where nobody could communicate with him. I would have expected the Minister to meet with people such as these, including the aviation experts and the assistant secretaries, on his first day in office to find out about any big issues that would have to be faced. Were they not there? I would have expected him to find out about the matters that would affect him, the Minister, Deputy O'Dea, and the other members of the Cabinet. It is not credible for the Minister to say that he did not know. I do not accept that, nor will anyone on this side of the House. Deputy Dempsey has been a Minister for ten years in at least four different Departments. He has no credibility on this issue. I ask him again. Did the Taoiseach's media unit contact him or his Department about this issue?

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