The former Fine Gael minister, Mr Michael Lowry, has not responded to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment a week after the deadline expired for his comments on a report into the operation of his company Garuda Ltd.
The Tanaiste, Ms Harney, said that "significant issues have arisen in this case" but she was precluded under the Companies Act, from making them public. She said she had no knowledge of any wrongdoing which reflected on Mr Lowry as a government minister.
During Question Time the Minister told the Dail that five of the 13 investigations she instigated had been completed. So far, the inquiries had cost £305,200, excluding staff salaries. She reiterated that the events of the last few weeks should leave no doubt that "there was a golden circle in this country that had considerable influence".
She said that in mid-December she received the report of the Department's authorised officer on Garuda Ltd, trading as Streamline Enterprises. Relevant extracts were sent to Mr Lowry and to the company for comment by February 1st.
She had asked the company for permission to publish the report, and unless this was granted she could only disclose its contents to certain parties. Labour's Enterprise spokesman, Mr Pat Rabbitte, asked about the "political dimension" to the report. The Tanaiste said it was a company law investigation, not a political inquiry. Mr Rabbitte pressed the Minister on whether information in the report related to the conduct of the company's "principal" while he was an office holder. The Tanaiste replied: "I do not want to politicise this issue because the company is a politician . . . Just as in the case of Celtic helicopters or any other interim reports I have seen, no political matters or matters relating to decisions made by politicians at any time are reflected or referred to in reports of that kind."
Mr Rabbitte said it was patently obvious that Celtic Helicopters had political ramifications. The Tanaiste told Fine Gael's deputy leader, Ms Nora Owen, that the Garuda report was the only one completed. All companies would be asked for permission to publish the reports on their operation. The report had not been referred to any other authority, she told Mr Rabbitte. As she understood it, unless the Moriarty inquiry sought the report "I do not think I have permission to send it to that tribunal." Earlier Mr Rabbitte pointed out that the Tanaiste had been quoted several times as expressing "the most grave concern about what she called a small coterie of business people in Irish life". He asked when she intended to "share these dreadful secrets with the rest of us". He added: "How does the Tanaiste intend to mediate into the public domain the terrible secrets that oppress her?"
Ms Owen: "The Third Secret of Fatima."
Ms Harney said that "events that have happened in the last few weeks should leave him (Mr Rabbitte) in no doubt that there was a golden circle in this country that had considerable influence".
She said the Bula investigation was passed on to the company, the DPP, the Stock Exchange, and the Revenue Commissioners. The interim report on NIB was brought to the attention of the Revenue Commissioners.
