Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

I warmly support the motion set before the House by the Sinn Féin Party, whose sentiments I fully share. It is a timely motion.

The debate on air transport of the past few weeks was completely phoney, as the Minister knows. We had a classic three-card trick from a pair of hucksters in the Government, the Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, and the Minister for Transport, Deputy Cullen. They stored up a long, pointless, nonsensical debate about the terminal, the most ludicrous aspect of which was of course the third terminal. Why not build five terminals while we are at it, like Arlanda Airport in Stockholm?

The former Minister, Deputy Brennan, was shafted after he delivered the totally unnecessary and dangerous splitting of the three airports and the gross enfeeblement of Aer Rianta so that Michael O'Leary, his boss and the paid-for Progressive Democrats frontmen were able to put forward the ludicrous proposition of privatising the second terminal. That was not a runner and would not happen. All the media, with their usual modus operandi, chased after that chimera, although the real issue was the disgraceful decision to privatise our national airline. All the nonsense that we read about O'Leary, his Progressive Democrats minions, the McEvaddys and the other developers obscured the key decision, namely, the privatisation and, in time, almost certainly the foreign take-over of the national airline of this island nation.

While that phoney debate has continued, the key intention of the Taoiseach and the Minister for Transport, Deputy Cullen, of selling off the jewel in the crown of our national state enterprise was allowed to go unchallenged. Tonight, the northside Fianna Fáil Deputies have the grave responsibility of voting for this motion and against the Government, as I did ten years ago, with the other northside Deputies, including Deputies Seán Ryan and Shortall. We had the guts to come in here and vote against the Government on an anti-national, anti-northside policy.

I want to mention those Deputies in a roll-call of infamy. In my constituency, there are Deputies Woods and Brady, who came in here with some weasel words a few minutes ago to try to justify the outrageously unjustifiable, which will lead to the loss of jobs in the Dublin North-East constituency. Deputy Haughey and the Minister of State, Deputy Callely, represent Dublin North-Central; Deputies Glennon and Wright represent Dublin North; the Minister of State, Deputy Noel Ahern, and Deputy Carey represent Dublin North-West and the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, represents Dublin West. Adjoining those constituencies are Meath——

See this speech in context