Results 5,241-5,260 of 11,242 for speaker:Noel Dempsey

Aer Lingus Proposal. (18 Oct 2007)

Noel Dempsey: —— within the Department. This is now the subject of a report. The Deputy asked whether I seriously expect her or anyone else in the Opposition to believe what I am saying. No, I do not expect Opposition Members to believe anything that does not suit them from a political point of view.

Aer Lingus Proposal. (18 Oct 2007)

Noel Dempsey: The Deputy asked about independent investigations. It is important to establish the facts clearly and I have asked for this to be done. The resultant report will be made public.

Aer Lingus Proposal. (18 Oct 2007)

Noel Dempsey: As for the review of Aer Lingus's decision and the appointment of directors, I have already indicated the Government will appoint two additional directors to the board of Aer Lingus. As the Deputy may not have been present in the Chamber during my reply to previous questions, I will repeat it.

Aer Lingus Proposal. (18 Oct 2007)

Noel Dempsey: The decision of the board in this regard was that the specific issue of the transfer of the slots was not brought before the board. The board gave a general mandate to the company and its executive to make decisions in the best commercial interests of the company. Consequently, the executive made that decision on foot of that mandate.

Aer Lingus Proposal. (18 Oct 2007)

Noel Dempsey: If Deputy O'Dowd can produce a newspaper article from that time that stated that Belfast would be a new hub and the slots would be removed from Shannon, I would like to see it.

Aer Lingus Proposal. (18 Oct 2007)

Noel Dempsey: Quite clearly, that did not happen. Deputy O'Dowd is trying in his questioning to muddy the waters as much as he can——

Aer Lingus Proposal. (18 Oct 2007)

Noel Dempsey: ——so I will try to keep things clear.

Aer Lingus Proposal. (18 Oct 2007)

Noel Dempsey: It was well known — perhaps it escaped Deputy O'Dowd's attention during the course of debates on the privatisation of Aer Lingus, the production of IPO literature and so on — that Aer Lingus intended to set up hubs in other parts of Ireland or in the UK. I am not sure how many people here knew, but it was public knowledge that at least five different centres were being considered,...

Aer Lingus Proposal. (18 Oct 2007)

Noel Dempsey: ——so let us separate the two issues.

Aer Lingus Proposal. (18 Oct 2007)

Noel Dempsey: It may suit——

Aer Lingus Proposal. (18 Oct 2007)

Noel Dempsey: How can I answer when the Deputies will not let me finish? Deputy O'Dowd should take note of what I said. It was a media report spotted by officials from my own Department that gave rise to the contact with Aer Lingus.

Aer Lingus Proposal. (18 Oct 2007)

Noel Dempsey: I did not say that.

Aer Lingus Proposal. (18 Oct 2007)

Noel Dempsey: I said I did not get the note——

Aer Lingus Proposal. (18 Oct 2007)

Noel Dempsey: No, he did not tell me. That is correct.

Aer Lingus Proposal. (18 Oct 2007)

Noel Dempsey: The Taoiseach's people did not know that the official had had a conversation with——

Aer Lingus Proposal. (18 Oct 2007)

Noel Dempsey: No, the official in the Department told me. There is no mystery about the media report. I was not in the Department at the time the media report appeared. It was spotted by the official, who had the conversation as a result of that.

Aer Lingus Proposal. (18 Oct 2007)

Noel Dempsey: Yes.

Aer Lingus Proposal. (18 Oct 2007)

Noel Dempsey: There was no involvement, to my knowledge, of the Taoiseach's Department.

Aer Lingus Proposal. (18 Oct 2007)

Noel Dempsey: I will go through this one more time. The official who saw the information in the newspaper on 13 June tried himself to make contact with Aer Lingus to establish the truth of the matter. He was unable to make contact directly. Another official was asked to do it because the first official had a number of meetings that morning. The second official made contact with a person in Aer Lingus...

Aer Lingus Proposal. (18 Oct 2007)

Noel Dempsey: The official made an attempt to ring the chief executive of Aer Lingus in the morning——