Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Deputy Fergus O'Dowd submitted a freedom of information request about the output of the communications unit in mid-June to see if it flagged the Irish Examiner story of 13 June which stated that Aer Lingus was to introduce new routes from Belfast. That announcement, as everybody will be aware, led to the cessation of flights from Shannon and the transfer of the slots to the Belfast-Heathrow route.

In that request Deputy O'Dowd was told that the communications unit did not inform the Taoiseach of the article in question. However, in the report entitled "Report to the Minister for Transport on the circumstances surrounding the Aer Lingus decision on the Shannon-Heathrow link" produced by the Secretary General of the Department of Transport, Ms Julie O'Neill, we see that the Secretary General was aware of the article of 13 June and she made others aware of it. That begs a number of questions. First, what is the point in having a communications unit that does not see an article with as significant a consequence as this?

Second, is the Taoiseach aware that the communications unit missed not only the Irish Examiner report but also the Irish Independent coverage of that story? Does the Taoiseach find it a little strange, or certainly unusual, that while the communications unit reported and highlighted articles from the Irish Examiner and the Irish Independent of 11 and 12 June, for some strange reason it did not highlight any article from 13 June where, clearly, in two newspapers, there were references to this story? What is the point in having a communications unit that appears to be selective or that, for some unusual reason, missed one of the major stories of the summer?

It is frankly incredible that a Secretary General of a major Department would not keep a Minister properly informed on an ongoing basis of what is happening. For the short period I was in the Department across the road the Secretary General was in the office ten times a day stating I should be informed of the consequences of this written question or an incident that happened. The question for the communications unit and, indeed, for the Taoiseach relates to when the Secretary General of this major Department became aware of this story. What is the difference between her being informed and the Minister not being informed? The Emergency Powers — No. 144 — Order 1942 referred to this matter and the question raised was:

Here the State, by the instrumentality of the Government, was the acquiring entity". Was 'the State' the same as a 'government department'?

I realise this is straying a little from the communications unit, but under company law all shareholders would have been notified of the consequence and if the Secretary General was informed or became aware, through the communications unit or by some other method, and the Minister was left in the dark, was the Government informed by virtue of the fact that the Department knew?

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