Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The public has been conned on the issue of Shannon. When the Shannon issue broke we were told that the Government knew nothing about it, that the matter was dropped on it by the company and that it could not intervene. We now know that the line Department knew about this in June and that there was plenty of time to have the matter dealt with, the decision changed and an intervention brought about.

There is an area of doubt, though, because if the Department knew about this, the Minister for Transport, Deputy Noel Dempsey, should have known.

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