Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I apologise to the Chair. I am Cathaoirleach of the Seanad today and I had to rush off for a vote a while ago. Unfortunately, I did not hear all of the replies from the IAA but I was here for some of them. I understand the difficulties of its representatives.

Having probably been the first to raise the matter in the Seanad in the first days of July, almost four months have elapsed since.

I sent a detailed letter with a series of questions to the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Varadkar, and the week before last he came to the Seanad to respond to an Adjournment matter I had tabled.

I know certain positive actions have occurred since the debacle. Nevertheless, there has been a severe delay in dealing with the matter; the Minister is indicating it is not his responsibility and the witnesses are saying, to an extent, that it is not theirs either. I am not saying that it is the responsibility of the Irish Aviation Authority, IAA, but where does the buck stop? This seems to be a great crime and many young people and their families have been deprived of significant sums of money. Somebody must get to the bottom of this. I am not a member of this committee and I ask the Chairman and others to seek a full investigation.

Almost four months ago I wrote the letter to the Minister asking if the Garda had been asked to investigate the matter. As other speakers have noted, large sums of money have been taken by the company. I have information going back to December last year, which is almost 12 months ago, that serious auditing questions were being raised about the company. I do not know if the witnesses have any input in looking at the audited accounts of the Pilot Training College, PTC, in Waterford. Somebody should have a look at them. It is bordering on criminal activity - if it is not criminal - that deposits and large sums of money were extracted from unsuspecting parents and young people whose life ambition was to be trained as a pilot. That is my concern.

Four months ago I asked the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement be brought in. I know the IAA has indicated it has limited powers but along the line the Minister or somebody else must take control of the issue. It is not good enough for us, as elected representatives in the Seanad or Dáil, to tell parents that the training institution could collapse leaving no recourse for those who have suffered a loss. I have much else to say but there should be an investigation.

If there are not sufficient powers for the committee to have a greater investigative role, perhaps legislation should be changed so it can have such a role. I am concerned that nobody has indicated a responsibility for this in the past four months. The Minister kicked this to touch when he responded on the issue in the Seanad. Many of the questions I ask today I posed to the Minister in the first week or ten days of last July but I have not yet got a satisfactory answer. It is suspicious that people involved in the former company now seem to have set up shop again. I hope the regulatory authority will not provide these people with any help in setting up a new training college. There is something radically wrong in the country if that can happen.

I am not sure if the witnesses have any answers. I regret that I missed much of the debate because of my position this week. Nevertheless, I have deep concerns but I have not received the answers I have sought from the Minister either by letter or in the Seanad over the past three or four months. Time is passing quickly and the trainee pilots and their parents deserve better answers both politically and from the IAA. They have not got what they are entitled to so far.