Dermot McCarthy Knew of Aer Lingus Shannon Decision in Advance and Didn’t Warn Government

Another embarrassing revelation in this morning’s Examiner for Fianna Fail and some fantastic FOI work by them it has to be said. Dermot McCarthy, Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach and Secretary General to the Government, had been told by the Department of Transport of the Aer Lingus decision in advance by around a week and a half (crucially 3 days before Cabinet meeting). The Sec-Gen didn’t pass the information on to the Taoiseach and the issue was not raised at the cabinet meeting three days later (a week before the Aer Lingus announcement on August 7).

The latest revelation is likely to provoke further anger in the mid-west region. Last night, a government spokesperson confirmed that Mr McCarthy had not passed on the information to the Taoiseach.

“Mr McCarthy was not clear if there was a partial or full withdrawal of slots,” said the spokesperson.

It is understood that Mr Ahern was first alerted to the issue when he was informed by Mr Dempsey on August 3 that Aer Lingus was switching its Heathrow slots from Shannon to Belfast. The airline did not publicly announce its decision until August 7.

Jesus there is so much wrong with this picture.

A man at the top of government/civil service doesn’t know to tell Bertie when shite hits the fan? Especially considering his bosses own aversion to privatisation of unionised semi-states. There is a horrendous picture emerging of a government that looks like its run by Sir Humphrey while the poor ol minister is drip-fed enough to allow him press release, photo-op and waffle make statements. Perhaps its familiarity? Too much of a party means that the logic of dominance takes over? Or perhaps its more sinister than that, though I suspect that the civil service has simply gotten used to the demands of Fianna Fail as a party and as a government and simply responds to that logic as a matter of priority. Its not unheard of.

No doubt the Shannon region is on the brink of secession but there are a number of serious issues here. Civil servants are either taking the cop for inept Ministers (which is plausible), Ministers are allowing their departments to be dominated by the Secreatery Generals and mandarins or they are being told and decided to do nothing about it. In almost all possbile worlds these are woeful vistas of government.

(Its not the only awful vista, once again its the media that are doing the opposition’s job of getting the answers to national problems.)