Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)

Given that we still do not have a situation whereby Council meetings are fully open to the public in terms of the nature of the conversation that takes place, what arguments were made and who made them, I will take the Minister at his word on that. It is still a strange and bad principle because the effect of this indemnity is almost a further subsidy for a privileged type of transport. We should not encourage that principle.

The only major point of contention touched on by previous speakers in the debate is to what extent this Bill should mirror the previous Bill in terms of having a sunset clause and passing out over a given time period. In his speech the Minister made the argument that it is not necessary because the Bill allows for ministerial orders that would have a timeframe. I put it to the Minister that that might need to be reviewed. Our experience of ministerial orders is that they are placed in the Library of the Dáil and unless the Opposition chooses to use its Private Members' time to challenge whether a ministerial order should be continued we rarely have an opportunity of approving or disapproving that ministerial order.

It is possible, perhaps by way of a Committee Stage amendment, to oblige the Minister for Transport of the day to put the ministerial order before the House for ratification. It is important that where a threat to the State exists in terms of a possible large payout that we do not have to go through the usual machinations of finding out if a ministerial order exists, whether it deserves to be challenged and if it can be challenged. The whole House should be involved. For that reason, more thought needs to be given to that aspect of the Bill.

The general principle of the Bill is acceptable and it will not be opposed by my party but we should be wary of getting into a situation where airline use in all circumstances must be protected as if it were some type of Holy Grail. In the same way that private cars might be used in an over-extended way and people should be encouraged to use public transport or walk, the use of private and corporate aircraft is regarded at times as a status symbol that has very little to do with getting from A to B on time. If problems arise because of the rising price of oil and insurance difficulties for the people who use aircraft as a personal private plaything, I would not be upset about that. The Bill is about more important aspects, however, including the commercial threat to the Irish economy, and as the Minister said it is correct that it must meet the deadline imposed on the individual company. On those grounds, the Green Party will not oppose this legislation.

See this speech in context