The Government has rejected claims by the leader of the Seanad, Mrs Mary O'Rourke, that a prominent firm of Dublin solicitors, Matheson Ormsby Prentice, drafted the legislation to break up Aer Rianta.
Mrs O'Rourke stood by her claims last night after she said in the Seanad that the firm was responsible for a drafting error in the Bill. The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, insisted there was no error and the section, on the conditions of the Aer Rianta chief executive, was not amended. The Bill clears the way for Mr Brennan to establish independent airport authorities at Dublin, Cork and Shannon.
The new boards in Cork and Shannon, however, will not take ownership of the airport assets until Mr Brennan and the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, sign off on business plans. This cannot happen before next May.
The legislation passed the remaining stages of the Seanad yesterday in a debate in which Mrs O'Rourke made clear her differences with Mr Brennan, who succeeded her in the transport brief.
Following Mr Brennan's attack on Mrs O'Rourke on Tuesday night, she said in the chamber that "we could each make known a great deal of information about each other". Mrs O'Rourke did not elaborate, besides saying "that would go on for ever, although not in my case".
Mr Brennan did not respond but said later that he had "nothing but admiration" for Mrs O'Rourke. He had no personal differences with anybody, particularly his Fianna Fáil colleagues. "My differences are policy ones." The Minister will be empowered to stand down the current Aer Rianta as soon as the Bill is signed into law by the President, Mrs McAleese. His spokesman said last night that this would not happen until September at the earliest, however, because preparatory legal work was required to establish the new Dublin Airport Authority and new authorities in Cork and Shannon.
An Aer Rianta worker-director, Mr Peter Dunne, said after the Bill cleared the Seanad yesterday that he would "most definitely" take legal action to prevent the break-up of the company. "I must under the law act in the best interest of Aer Rianta and its assets," he said.
Mr Dunne, who attended the first part of the Seanad debate on Tuesday, said the denunciation of Aer Rianta by Senator Shane Ross was disgraceful. "He shamed the house and the people who held those seats over the years."
Mrs O'Rourke claimed Matheson Ormsby Prentice was responsible for an error in a section relating to the conditions of the Aer Rianta chief executive. She was certain the firm would accept that it had made an error.
"I did not contact them because that is not my job but I will when the Bill is passed. This error makes the legislation both deficient and faulty."
Last night the Government's official spokeswoman said the firm did not draft the Bill, which she said was drafted by the office of the Attorney General. She said Matheson Ormsby Prentice had been engaged as advisers to Mr Brennan's Department.
Mr Brennan indicated in the chamber, however, that the firm had a role in the drafting process when he said the wording of Section 12(12) was "the result of deliberate drafting on the part of the Office of the Chief Parliamentary Counsel, the Office of the Attorney General and our outside advisers".
