Dublin Port’s chief executive has received an apology over press releases from a campaign against the end of cruise liner arrivals to the port that he claimed were defamatory, as The Irish Times reports.
Lorcan O’Connor, a director of Carroll’s Irish Gifts and founder of the All Ireland Cruise Ship Action Group, and PR firm Paul Allen & Associates published the three press releases in May and June of this year.
Both parties have acknowledged they contained “some limited references” to Dublin Port chief Eamonn O’Reilly as well as “robust expressions of opinion which were unwarranted and/or were stated without providing a sufficient factual basis”.
Two of the press releases made reference to questions over expenditure on company credit cards and hospitality by Dublin Port Company executives, over which the State-owned company faced an Oireachtas committee last month.
The All Ireland Cruise Ship Action Group itself gave evidence before the Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport in May on the impact they say will be felt by the tourism industry on the port’s recent decision to reduce cruise liner visits over the next number of years.
The Irish Times has more on the story HERE.