Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are all aware that a case is being taken by the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement about very serious allegations. It is under judicial review. I want to ask the Tánaiste about the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Denis Naughten's actions as he outlined them yesterday in the House and about political accountability. Every Minister is accountable to the House. The revelations in yesterday's edition of The IrishTimeswhich have been confirmed by the Minister that he had given a heads-up to a PR lobbyist acting on behalf of INM, a company involved in a media merger for which the Minister had statutory responsibility, smack of old-style politics and cronyism, the type of politics Fine Gael has always tried to state it is above. The reality is that the PR lobbyist was after one thing and one thing only - a heads-up as to what would happen with the merger application involving INM and Celtic Media. It is not as simple as a phone call between two mates. It is not as insignificant as the Minister and the Taoiseach are trying to portray. The Minister is trying to imply nothing sensitive was discussed when it is clear a heads-up was given. He has confirmed that when he took the call from the PR lobbyist on his mobile phone, he was informed for the first time by the PR lobbyist that the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission had made its ruling on the merger involving INM and Celtic Media. I am sure the Tánaiste will agree that it was highly irregular that a lobbyist had this information and I cannot understand why it did not set off alarm bells with the Minister. What action is the Government taking to ascertain how that information reached a lobbyist before the Minister?

The Minister did not record the call and did not speak to officials about it. He did not inform the Dáil and the public about it. In fact, three weeks after it, he withheld his intentions and personal views from the Dáil during parliamentary questions. He said on the day, "I have not made my views known and I am not going to." That is a direct quote from his contribution. This stinks. The Minister made a virtue of not telling Deputies about his intentions, personal or ministerial, when he had disclosed them to a lobbyist. It is ironic that he has invited any Member of the Dáil to inspect the file when nothing is recorded in it about the personal call with the lobbyist about the merger. Does the Tánaiste believe it is appropriate that the Minister said he had acted in this manner and that his defence was that he had been speaking in a personal capacity, rather than as a Minister with statutory responsibility? Does the Tánaiste accept that as an excuse? Is it not a "dog ate my homework" excuse? Does the Tánaiste accept that the Minister, in the quotes I have outlined, misled the Dáil last December? Does he agree that the Minister's actions were inappropriate and unacceptable?

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