Two months later, Mr Buckley thought the referral to the BAI was unusual. “This is the first time that having been approved by the competition authority that it is referred to the BAI,” Mr Buckley added. Referring to BAI chief executive Michael O’Keeffe, Mr Buckley told Mr O’Brien he thought Mr O’Keeffe was “the type of guy that won’t be pushed around”. Asked if he had any other contact with INM staff, Mr Naughten told the Dáil that, in May 2017, he met Mr Buckley at an INM data conference at the RDS in Dublin. The following month, INM and Celtic called off their proposed merger, just before Mr Naughten was due to consider the BAI’s report.

Source: The Irish Times April 19, 2018 00:00 UTC