WHY, A MONTH AFTER TELLING INM, DID THE MINISTER REFUSE TO TELL THE DÁIL?
fully adheres to the lobbying legislation.’
A spokesman for Mr Varadkar expressed confidence in Mr Naughten last night. The Taoiseach said he was ‘satisfied with the Minister’s explanation’ for what looked like preferential treatment.
Neither Fianna Fáil nor Sinn Féin would comment on whether they would ultimately bring motions of no confidence.
But the opposition parties gave Mr Naughten a grilling yesterday.
‘It is deeply alarming that Minister Naughten thinks it is acceptable to communicate sensitive commercial information regarding an acquisition process to somebody representing a party to that acquisition,’ said Ms McDonald said.
The actions had been described by the ODCE as potentially constituting insider information and a possible breach of stock market rules, she said. ‘The Minister was given ample Dáil time to explain himself and to answer important questions. He failed to do so.’
In the course of his explanation Mr Naughten declared: ‘I have nothing to hide in relation to this.’
He said: ‘I didn’t inform officials because at the time there was no active file with the department.’ He said he knew Mr Ó Neachtain, the lobbyist, as the man was once the government press secretary.
Ms McDonald asked: ‘Why did he take a phone call from a person acting on behalf of INM and communicate his decision to refer the takeover to the BAI two months before he formally did so?’
She said the Minister had misled the Dáil in December 2016 when he told the House he had not arrived at any decision on how to proceed. ‘This was clearly untrue as he told Mr Eoghan Ó Neachtain quite the opposite approximately three weeks prior.’
Ms McDonald said: ‘The Minister’s answers in the Dáil today had more holes than a sieve. It is now the responsibility of the Taoiseach to ensure he is not allowed to... dodge his responsibility to provide these answers.’
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin asked Mr Varadkar: ‘Why would it be normal practice for a minister to inform a company what his intentions were relating to a proposed merger before they were publicly announced?
‘Was this not commercially sensitive and price-sensitive information? This may or may not have been in breach of new market abuse regulations.’
Mr Varadkar said: ‘As it is... before the courts and sub judice, it would not be appropriate for me to comment on the [ODCE] affidavit.’
Comment – Page 14 senan.molony@dailymail.ie
‘It is deeply alarming’ On December 6, 2017, Mr Naughten, pictured, was asked questions about the proposed merger by both Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy and Sinn Féin’s Brian Stanley. In response to Mr Stanley asking him about the proposed takeover, Mr Naughten said of a possible referral to the BAI: I have not made my views known and I am not going to Addressing the Dáil yesterday, Mr Naughten said he had spoken to PR executive Eoghan Ó Neachtain, representing INM, on either November 10 or 11, 2016. He described that conversation with the executive by saying: I expressed a purely personal view that the likely course of action would be a referral to the BAI