Mr. Eamonn Brennan:

It is important we have a sense of balance. I would respectfully suggest to the Chairman that the committee look for the airlines' point of view as well. As the regulator, we are trying to ensure best practice and steer the best course. The EASA course and all the consultations have been done to that end.

On the issue of the Pilot Training College, PTC, in Waterford and in respect of Deputy Dooley's question as to whether there should be a greater role for the IAA - he got in first with all the good questions - the Commission for Aviation Regulation currently bonds airlines and travel agents. Our view is that there is a role for the commission going forward and I accept that case would be fine without any doubt.

On the point picked up on by Deputy O'Reilly about the role of the IAA, our role is very clearly defined by legislation and the joint aviation requirement, JAR, rules, which are European rules. We are specifically excluded from having a role in consumer protection so we do not have that role. If one looks at the PTC situation, one can see it was a success. I remember coming before an Oireachtas committee four or five years ago where a member berated me for limiting the growth these people could have and argued we were overly restrictive in applying the regulations. I think the member in question was Deputy Eoin Ryan. That was the tone of the argument. The PTC was a very successful organisation which trained hundreds of pilots each year and placed them with companies like Ryanair and Aer Lingus so, prima facie, everything looked very good. I will ask Mr. Purcell to outline what we have done since the PTC failed. It is interesting to note that in the case in the UK where the flight school went under and in a number of other cases, they have done nothing like what we have done. We have repatriated students and one of the most important things we have done is to seize their training records to ensure that where they carried out an hour's training, that was credited to them going forward. That is the single most important issue in that regard.

To cut to the chase, if we were to go down the road of compensating for every commercial licensed entity that failed, we would not operate for very long. That is a fundamental line to cross. I have full sympathy with the families and my heart goes out to them. The Minister and I met them. It is a dreadful situation but I would say very forcefully that the people who have not been called to account are the directors of the company. The minute this happened, they headed for the hills, which frustrated our efforts considerably. We could not find them and were not contacted by them. Essentially, all the students left in Florida were left for the IAA to repatriate, and we funded that. We had no contact with the directors. The first thing we heard was that an administrator had been appointed and there was a plan and now we have liquidation, which is what happens in these cases. I have no problem with being held to account for our actions but the people who are the principal players in this and who took the deposits off the students and their families, which is a terrible situation, have not been held to account. I am aware of people who borrowed money. I told the Minister that we are going round in a circle with the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and the IAA but the people who could solve this did not help. We sent inspectors to the US and provided assistance and briefing to students. Virtually everyone in this room has written to us at some stage so we have proactively tried to do everything we possibly can, not to fix the situation but to assist the students because it is not a very good situation. I would hate it myself, as would any parent. I will ask Mr. Purcell to outline what was done.