There has been a slap on the wrist in Tynwald for CEMEX Island Aggregates, from the Department of Trade and Industry.

DTI Minister David Cretney faced questions for written answer from Garff MHK and Speaker of the House of Keys Steve Rodan, about the department’s mineral resources plan.

He asked whether it was fair the company had been given the plan, which it had then used to support a planning application.

Mr Cretney said an early draft had been given to the company, on the strict understanding it kept the document confidential.

Mr Cretney said CEMEX had reproduced a chart from the plan, as well as quoting from it in November 2007, three months after the DTI gave it the draft.

He said the document had only been sent to the company for consultation, and its use in a planning application to extend Dreemskerry quarry was done without the department’s knowledge or permission.

Since then, he confirmed, other interested parties involved in that planning battle had been sent copies of the report out of a sense of fairness.

Mr Cretney added the DTI hadn’t wanted to disadvantage anybody during the planning process.