In today’s Tribune, we are carrying a story about how an airport transit to transport John O’Donoghue from one terminal of Heathrow Airport to another ended up costing €472.
Even though it was just a two-hour layover as Minister O’Donoghue landed in London en route from India back to Dublin, an official from the Embassy came to meet him in a car, collected him and dropped him off at Terminal 1.
Also, there’s an interview with Terry Gallagher, the owner of the Cartel car hire company, which provides transport on behalf of the Irish Embassy in London.
Plenty of Internet boards have suggested Fianna Fail cronyism at work here because Mr Gallagher’s father is a former government minister.
It is distracting from the real issue. Mr Gallagher has been doing business with the Irish government for twenty years or so and conducted VIP transport on behalf of the previous Fine Gael/Labour administration.
The issue is – and always has been – whether the Irish taxpayer feels it is justifiable to spend close to €500 on an airport transfer or €7,000 to provide car transport for a Minister during the Cheltenham racing festival.
You can read the story here:
http://www.tribune.ie/news/home-news/article/2009/aug/23/odonoghue-skipped-airport-shuttle-to-take-472-car-/
