The Fine Gael party submitted a complaint to the Commission after the allegations were made on Joe Duffy’s Liveline in April 2008.

The issue arose after a caller to the programme gave an account of her experience at Gatwick Airport when an Aer Lingus flight had been cancelled due to a lightning strike and a large number of passengers had been delayed. These passengers were informed they would be accommodated on later flights and that preference would be given to passengers travelling with children and to elderly or ill passengers.

The caller said Deputy Kenny was accommodated on the flight ahead of some passengers travelling with children.

Fine Gael denied the accusation and said the factual position was set out in a statement supplied to Liveline in advance of the broadcast. Furthermore, Fine Gael said Aer Lingus confirmed that the programme was in touch with the airline before the broadcast and the airline indicated that there was no substance to the allegation of queue jumping.

In its complaint, Fine Gael said airline staff indicated that passengers with children would be accommodated first and invited other passengers with particular time pressures to make themselves known. The staff member travelling with Deputy Kenny informed the representative that they had a meeting with European leaders in Dublin at 8pm. According to Fine Gael, a number of other passengers also responded to the invitation to come forward.

Fine Gael insisted that the programme showed a lack of fairness when the item was been discussed; the statement provided by the party was not read out and was only referred to ten minutes into the item and the broadcaster did not indicate they had spoken to Aer Lingus.

The party said the allegation was untrue and constituted a serious attack on the dignity, honour and reputation of Deputy Kenny. Fine Gael said evidence of the damage done could be seen from the newspaper commentary the following day.

RTE said the accusation was made by a caller but was followed by another caller who said that he had travelled on the same flight as Deputy Kenny before and the Fine Gael leader had queued up the same as everyone else.

The broadcaster said the show’s presenter read out a state-ment from Fine Gael which made it clear Deputy Kenny had not jumped the queue. However, the perception remained amongst other people hoping to board the aircraft that Deputy Kenny had, in effect, jumped the queue and the programme went on to include an exchange of remarks from both sides.

RTE said several callers were put on air supporting Mr Kenny, including a caller who described the initial complainant as “petty and unfair”, and another caller who always found Mr Kenny to be “a perfect gentleman”.

RTE said it regretted that the broadcast had caused Deputy Kenny distress but believed the programme was not unfair. “It is RTE’s view that the programme was not unfair to Deputy Kenny and that what was broadcast was accurate and true.” On hearing the broadcast, the commission said the initial caller was permitted to make allegations that framed the discussion, including the line of questioning by the presenter. It appeared that what she was saying was ‘fact’ and the presenter gave weight to her allegations by continually asking had Deputy Kenny skipped the queue and how many children were left behind.

While the commission acknowledged that Liveline depends to a large extent on callers recounting their stories, it pointed out that the broadcaster is still obliged to ensure that the facts of their stories are substantial prior to broadcast.

The Commission said the tone of the programme was melodramatic in nature with numerous references to ‘children being left behind’ but it was evident to the reasonable listener that the story was blown out of proportion and afforded a weight that it should not have had.

The Commission ruled that while the accurate portrayal of Deputy Kenny was unfair it was not capable of adversely affecting his reputation or honour. It upheld the fairness, objectivity, and impartiality aspect of the complaint but rejected the idea that the inaccurate assertion of facts constituted an attack on a person’s honour or reputation.

Fine Gael has welcomed the decision.

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