Brennan refuses to deny or confirm €5,000 gifts

The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, has refused to confirm or deny that he is the senior politician who allegedly received €5,000 worth of cigars and drink from Aer Rianta in the early 1990s.

Speaking as he unveiled plans for a €117m investment in new carriages for Iarnrod Éireann at Connolly Station in Dublin yesterday, Mr Brennan repeated that he had asked for a full report to be sought from the Aer Rianta auditors and that this report would be published in full in 14 days.

He was he said "confident" to wait the 14 days, and he volunteered that he would be "confident" to comment on the motivation for the allegations at that time.

Pressed about whether it was actually he who had received the luxury items without payment, Mr Brennan asked: "Do you think I would be establishing such a strong inquiry if I had concerns in these matters?"

Asked if he might now be investigating his own actions as Minister for Transport and Tourism in 1992, he said: "I don't know from reading the piece (in a Sunday newspaper) whether it is one minister, or 10 ministers or over what period it is. We will know in 14 days' time and I will publish in full the details."

While the Minister insisted that he would not yet be making any comment "on the timing or the motivation of the allegations" he did acknowledge that he had "substantial policy changes in mind for Aer Rianta . . . and I have announced them far and wide: the possible provision of a second terminal, the possible break-up of the Shannon and Cork link, but these are on-going policy issues and I will deal with them".

Asked if a "simple phone call" would elicit the answers as to which ministers were involved and on what dates the goods were delivered, Mr Brennan said: "The secretary general has commenced her investigation this very morning, has started to make those phone calls. The secretary general also needs to interview former staff of the Department of Transport and current staff. The secretary also needs to perhaps interview the auditors who are separate from the board (of Aer Rianta)".

Asked directly if it was not the case that he would know if he himself was the minister who received the €5,000 worth of gifts, Mr Brennan again repeated that he did not know from the allegation how many ministers were involved and he stressed that the allegation "didn't, as far as I understood it, point the finger at one particular minister".

He said: "I just want to make one thing clear, that I have initiated a very strong investigation, a very strong inquiry. Fourteen days will tell all and I am quite confident to wait for those 14 days."

Asked if the leak of the allegation was "sinister", the Minister said: "I will be in a much better position to comment on that - and I will comment on that - as soon as this report is available to me. It will be very thorough, every slip of paper, every delivery docket, every invoice will come from the auditors."

A reporter asked: "Mr O'Leary (Mr Dermot O'Leary, a director of Aer Rianta, whose term of office ends this month) says he raised the issue with you in 1993 - is that true or false?"

Mr Brennan replied: "I am not going beyond telling you what I told you which is the inquiry is on, the secretary general started it this morning.

In 14 days' time we will have all the answers and we will deal with those details when they are published."

At this point Mr Brennan again repeated that it was not clear "what period we are talking about. Whether we are talking about a particular minister or a number of ministers . . . the inquiry starts, it is over in 14 days, will be published in full and I will comment in the strongest possible terms at that time about the timing and motivation." On the possibility of a Minister accepting responsibility for an official's actions by "falling on his sword", Mr Brennan said: "The suggestions in the article are about goods being transferred to the Department and as I understand it, unpaid bills. Let's just see how it comes out before we get carried away."