Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Last week, I asked the Taoiseach for his views on the behaviour of the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Denis Naughten, in revealing to a lobbyist his decision in respect of a proposed media acquisition by Independent News & Media, INM, in advance of his actual decision and before telling anybody else. I asked the Taoiseach if he found this unacceptable, if he thought it was appropriate behaviour, whether it was correct of the Minster to do that and whether it was normal practice. The Taoiseach dodged the question and added the view that the Minister did not give any confidential information to the lobbyist concerned. In fact, he blamed the lobbyist for hyping the matter and over-egging the description of this information as confidential. We now know that it was confidential because the Minister confirmed this. We know from the record that, three weeks after he made the call to the lobbyist, the Minister replied to questions from two Deputies on the issue by saying, "I have not made my views known and I am not going to." Of course, he had already made his views known to the lobbyist in question, who told his superiors in Heneghan PR, who told the chairman of INM, who then told the largest shareholder.

No other shareholder was told. Celtic Media, the subject matter of the acquisition, was not told and the Dáil was not told. In fact, the Dáil was misled and the Minister should apologise to the House for giving misleading information and correct the record because clearly the two do not tally.

Does the Taoiseach still hold the view that the Minister did not give confidential information to the lobbyist? Most objective observers found somewhat farcical the Minister's statement to the Dáil last week and the idea that he expressed a purely personal view that this would be the likely course of action he would follow. Deputy Howlin summed it up last week when he said a Minister performing a statutory duty is always a Minister and one cannot separate out what is personal, particularly in the context of a statutory decision. Surely the Taoiseach accepts that basic principle.

The Minister's officials must have warned him in advance on this issue given their experience with the Moriarty tribunal and the awarding of the State's second mobile phone licence to Esat Digifone. We know that experience traumatised officials in the Department considerably and obviously left a mark in the Department.

It is clear to me and most people that the Minister made a serious error of judgment and his defence to date in respect of that serious error has been very poor. Does the Taoiseach accept that the Minister made a basic error of judgment and that what he did was wrong? Does he accept that the Dáil was misled, perhaps not intentionally, and the Minister needs to apologise and correct the record? Does he accept that the information the Minister gave to the lobbyist was confidential and not shared with anyone until the decision was ultimately publicly announced? Have queries been made as to how the lobbyist got information regarding the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission's decision prior to the Minister getting it and was able to tell the Minister and then seek his response?

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