Staff may go over Shannon error

A Minister for State yesterday suggested that a civil servant could end up resigning over the failure to inform the Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey, about Aer Lingus's plans to axe its Shannon to Heathrow service.

Mr Dempsey has ordered an internal department inquiry to establish why he was not given a memorandum prepared by his officials on June 13th last dealing with the Aer Lingus plan.

In the Dáil last week Mr Dempsey said it appeared that "human error" was the reason why he did not receive the memo.

Speaking on RTÉ's The Week In Politics, Minister of State for European Affairs Dick Roche said: "The Minister was very mild on the department. If I was in his position I would have been incandescent with rage . . . Steps will have to be taken to make sure that there is never a repetition like this." Regarding calls for Mr Dempsey to resign, Mr Roche said: "It is certainly not a resigning matter for him." When asked if it could be a resigning matter for others he replied: "It may be, we'll wait until we see the report."

On the same programme the Labour Party deputy Joan Burton questioned why Government advisors, including the Taoiseach's programme manager, Gerry Hickey, had not tracked developments at Aer Lingus.

"Why, for instance, didn't the Taoiseach's programme manager - who I think is paid more than €250,000 - why wasn't he tracking Aer Lingus? It was one of the key political issues on the agenda of Government with huge implications for Dublin, Limerick and Cork. Somebody was asleep on the job it seems to me," she said.