Govt to probe Aer Rianta favours for Liam Lawlor
Public Enterprise Minister Mary O’Rourke is expected to write to Aer Rianta’s chairman today to ask why disgraced TD Liam Lawlor received preferential treatment at Dublin Airport on his return from New York earlier this month.
Airport security staff helped Mr Lawlor to exit through a staff area so he could avoid a horde of photographers waiting for his arrival.
It emerged yesterday that Dermot O’Leary, an Aer Rianta board member who also sits on Fianna Fail’s national executive, arranged the preferential treatment for Mr Lawlor, who was expelled from Fianna Fail last year over his failure to co-operate with the Flood Tribunal.
Today’s action by Minister O’Rourke comes after Fine Gael accused Fianna Fail of abusing state companies because the members it appointed to the Aer Rianta board were giving Mr Lawlor special treatment.
The media had gathered at Dublin Airport because the Dublin west TD was due back in Ireland to serve a seven-day jail term in Mountjoy Prison. The Supreme Court had allowed him to spend Christmas in New York with his family, a move that also sparked suspicions of preferential treatment for the beleaguered politician.
