Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I replied to the effect that I noted that the Deputy had made reference on a number of occasions to the transfer of parliamentary questions which he had put down to me to the Minister for Transport. I stated that far from there being a reluctance on my part to engage with the issues concerned, I was merely following well-established precedent that questions are answered by the Minister of the Government having responsibility for the substantive question. I stated that I had in Leaders' Questions and on other occasions addressed the matters which were the subject of the Deputy's query. I continued that the position was that the Secretary General of my Department had inquired of the Secretary General of the Department of Transport about the likelihood of industrial action arising in Aer Lingus in the event that changed work practices were imposed on 1 August.

On the margins of the interdepartmental meeting about other matters held in my Department on 27 July, the Secretary General of the Department of Transport and the Assistant Secretary advised my Secretary General, who had raised the query in his role as Chairperson of the National Implementation Body, that it was not expected that such an industrial relations issue would arise. They went on to say that they had learned that it was the intention of the company to announce a new base in Belfast and this would have implications for Shannon and there would likely be industrial relations consequences.

I continued that they also advised that they were prepared to brief the Minister and would be in contact with the CEO of Aer Lingus on his return from leave the following Monday and the Minister would be meeting representatives of the company later that week. I further stated that I was informed by the Minister for Transport on 3 August that he had been told by company representatives that it was their intention to terminate the Shannon-Heathrow service and that this would be announced on 7 August.

I stated that with regard to the media monitoring unit in my Department, the position was that the unit disseminates a summary of radio and television headlines and of newspaper headlines on a regular basis to a wide range of personnel across Departments. Its role is purely one of dissemination of the news summaries and it does not have the role of bringing specific matters to my or any other Minister's attention. The unit did not bring any matter relating to Shannon or Belfast to attention.

In fairness to me, and with the greatest respect to Deputy O'Dowd, I did not answer questions which were not in order for me to answer, but I did not ignore him and I went to the trouble of writing personally to him. He should at least acknowledge that because it is not something I do regularly.

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