The Department of Enterprise has claimed it cannot release notes of recent discussions between its top civil servant and Aughinish Alumina management, citing a desire to protect “highly confidential information” shared in confidence by the company.
Declan Hughes, the department’s secretary general, and Ciaran Kelleher, managing director of the Co Limerick refinery, had a number of phone calls and a meeting between June and July, when officials were finalising a review into the company’s exports to Russia.
The department’s investigation was launched following reporting in The Irish Times that traced how alumina refined in Aughinish is being shipped in vast quantities to smelters in Russia, where it is made into aluminium that is sold to ASK, a Moscow trading company known to supply the alloy to Russian arms and missile manufacturers.
The Limerick plant’s exports of alumina to Russia have significantly increased since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and account for about half of Aughinish’s business.
Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke said the department’s investigation could not be published, as it contained commercially sensitive information. However, a copy was obtained by The Irish Times.
The report said Irish officials could not find evidence proving alumina exported by Aughinish was ultimately used by Russian arms producers. The finding was qualified by the fact the inquiry was unable to source information about the clients of ASK and had no means to trace Irish-refined alumina inside Russia.
The department has refused a Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request from The Irish Times seeking notes of meetings and phone calls between senior civil servants and Aughinish Alumina.
Hughes, the secretary general of the department, met Kelleher, the head of Aughinish Alumina, on June 12th. There were three phone calls logged between the pair in June and July, with notes of what was discussed written up afterwards.
The department refused to release notes of what was discussed, stating the records contain “highly confidential information shared by the company with department officials in confidence”.
A department spokeswoman said it applies an “unbiased and objective” approach when deciding to release or withhold documents under the FOI Act.
“Records are withheld only in instances where specific, legally defined exemption provisions under the Act, such as personal privacy or commercial sensitivity, strictly apply,” she said.
Aughinish Alumina separately lobbied Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport Patrick O’Donovan and Minister of State in the Department of Agriculture Niall Collins, earlier this year, records show.
A filing Aughinish Alumina made to the State’s register tracking lobbying of public officials disclosed phone calls to the two Limerick TDs, to highlight “risks to business and employment at Aughinish Alumina”. The calls were made between January and April this year, according to the submission to the lobbying register.
The company disclosed Kelleher made representations over the phone to Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s chief of staff Deirdre Gillane, on the same subject.
Revelations detailing Aughinish Alumina’s role in the Russian supply chain were published by The Irish Times, in co-operation with the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, in late March.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has made repeated calls for EU-level sanctions to prohibit exports of alumina to Russia, claiming the material is aiding Moscow’s war machine.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive body that leads on sanctions, is weighing up whether to include alumina shipments in the bloc’s next rounds of proposed sanctions. The measures are intended to make it harder for Russia to sustain its war in Ukraine.
Aughinish Alumina has warned the Government that cutting off its ability to sell to Russia could force the plant to close, costing hundreds of jobs in the mid-west.