Irish Times and Patrick O'Donovan both make same false claim and the Irish Times refuses to correct.

Patrick O'Donovan is complaining that he hasn't been delegated any ministerial functions by Minister Ross in the Department of Transport Tourism and Sport and the Irish Times repeated his false claim about him being the only one.

Minister in state as Shane Ross fails to delegate functions - Irish Times Mar 11, 2017 by Sarah Bardon

Correspondence [dated 13th February 2017] released to The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Act shows that Mr O’Donovan told Mr Ross the refusal to delegate functions is causing “confusion” within the department and asked for it to be urgently addressed, claiming he is the only Minister of State to be in this position.

His key claim seems to be wrong, he says that he is the only Minister of State not to have been delegated functions but afaik Eoghan Murphy has not been either, other wise it would appear here Irish Statute Book

Patrick O'Donovan's email actually said he understood he is the only one in this situation, he is allowing himself to be mistaken, but the Irish Times does not qualify when Sarah Bardon of the Irish Times earlier asserted the same false claim.

Ross drink-driving crackdown to be blocked by Fianna Fáil Feb 22, 2017, Sarah Bardon

Mr O’Donovan is the only Minister of State not to have delegated powers...

If the sentence isn't true it should be corrected. I complained to the readersrep and editor of the Irish Times and they tried to prevaricate by saying they were waiting for a reply from the Finance Department about what powers had been assigned to MOS Eoghan Murphy, but they didn't need to ask the Department of Finance just look for the Statutory Instruments, delegated powers has a specific meaning, it does not mean assignment of areas of responsibilities as suggested by Irish Times editor Eoin McVey in his reply to me, because Patrick O'Donovan has already been assigned areas of responsibilty see Dail Question 25 October 2016.

A spokeswoman for Mr Ross said... said there was no precedent in the department to delegate functions, pointing to a similar situation between former minister for transport Paschal Donohoe and minister of state Michael Ring.

This is correct, you can search all Statutory Instruments related to delegated of functions on the OPAC library.


Timeline

Eoghan Murphy refers to delegated responsibilites while he doesn't have any 22 June 2016

Dara Callery asks each Department about MOS' delegated responsibilties25 October 2016

Out in the cold:  The six powerless junior ministers Kevin Doyle Independent.ie November 1 2016. It says "6 powerless junior ministers" Im not sure who it is referring to, Ring and Kyne(1)(2) got delegated functions in June, July 2016 months before the article was published although it doesn't specifically say they were powerless.
Patrick O'Donovan, Eoghan Murphy and Joe McHugh were not given delegated functions under those departments in that Enda Kenny post 2016 general election cabinet.

Michael Martin asks Enda Kenny about MOs 15 November 2016

Transport Tourism and Sport Committee where delegation of functions was discussed 1st February 2017.

FOI'd copies of emails 3rd and 13th of February from Patrick O'Donovan to the Minister


PQ Ministerial Functions 22 March 2017. 14 February 2017