The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, has ordered an inquiry into claims that a senior Government politician failed to pay for €5,000 worth of spirits and cigars purchased by Aer Rianta in the 1990s.
Mr Brennan said last night that he had asked the secretary-general of his Department to seek "immediate reports from the auditors to Aer Rianta to establish fully the facts" and to report to him in 14 days.
The move follows the publication of a story in the Sunday Independent yesterday, which claimed that the luxury items - said to be Christmas presents for friends and constituents - were gift-wrapped and delivered to the minister in the 1990s.
The newspaper claimed that the bill remains unpaid despite the fact that three invoices were issued.
The paper did not name the minister concerned or the years in which the items were allegedly purchased in the 1990s. There was considerable speculation yesterday as to who the newspaper was referring to.
Mr Brennan, through a spokesman, refused to comment on whether he was the political figure at the centre of the report. A source close to the Minister said that by doing so he felt he would lend credence to the story.
But, in a statement, the Minister said that "any comment as to the possible timing and motivation of these allegations" would be made when the secretary-general furnished his report.
"When the report is available, I will publish fully the details," Mr Brennan said.
The Minister said that "legal advice" was also being sought.
An Aer Rianta spokesman refused to comment last night, but a senior source said that the matter "would be looked into this week".
Relations between the Minister and the Aer Rianta board are strained. Mr Brennan has vowed to break up the semi-state company's monopoly and has signalled that he will establish separate boards to run Cork and Shannon airports.
There is also tension over the provision of a second terminal at Dublin Airport.
Fine Gael's transport spokesman, Mr Denis Naughten, said that the allegations raised serious questions over how government ministers used facilities provided by the airport company and over the mechanisms used by the company to collect outstanding debts for which invoices had been issued.
The Labour Party's spokeswoman on transport, Ms Róisín Shortall, said that if the story was true it would represent a serious abuse of office by the minister in question. "The first thing we require is the full facts. There presumably must be a record in the Department of Transport on this affair and it is essential therefore that Minister Brennan makes a full statement."