Yesterday, Ciaran Lynch TD put down a follow-on Parliamentary question regarding the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation’s undertaking to pay public monies to An Smaoineamh Mor Ltd’s competition and lobbying plan Your Country, Your Call.
To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation when the undertaking was given to provide public funds to an organisation (details supplied) in regard to Your Country Your Call; the funds that have been provided and under what heading; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
– Ciarán Lynch.
In reply, the got the following response from Batt O’Keefe TD.
Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation (Mr. O’Keeffe)
Your Country, Your Call aimed to identify proposals, which would have a positive economic impact on Ireland and create sustainable employment. The Competition was a very successful one and the winners were announced on 17th September 2010. To date, no funding has been paid by my Department for this initiative.
Which, of course, isn’t what he asked at all.
Why won’t the Minister, like his predecessor before him, tell the Dail when public money was committed to this private enterprise? And why won’t he say what the legislative basis might be for such a transfer of public funds into private hands?
2 Comments
It should be astounding that a Government minister can get away with responding to a parliamentary question in such an obtuse, deliberately evasive manner. But it isn’t. I look forward to seeing what the next government will do with the FOI legislation. In the meantime, let’s just keep sending the requests and asking the questions. With all things, the answers are eventually given voluntarily in a spirit of transparency and public interest, or they are dragged from those who evade the questions.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Simon McGarr, steve white, steve white, steve white, Evert Bopp and others. Evert Bopp said: RT @lostexpectation: Your Country Your Call: Minister won’t answer Parliamentary Question on the money http://bit.ly/dGa0jA #ycyc via @T … […]