Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

I thank the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment for at long last coming into the House to reply to this question. I must have asked her and the Taoiseach at least a dozen times over the past four or five weeks for an update on SR Technics. The major information at the airport relates to the extraordinary rumour that the APU and landing gear units are effectively being transferred to a branch of Mubadala, Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies, ADAT, I think it is called, in the United Arab Emirates. If that is the case, SR Technics has taken the Minister and the Taoiseach for a pair of total fools. It is treating them like the Laurel and Hardy of European politics, with utter disdain because this means that the company always intended to strip SR Technics in Dublin, leaving us with empty hangars, no jobs and people trying desperately to survive, and without facilitating young apprentices to finish their training. Can the Minister give us any further information on to whom SR Technics has sold these vital assets? What legal advice has the Minister taken on the sale? Mr. O'Leary of IDA Ireland met Bernd Kessler a couple of weeks ago. The Minister was in the Middle East. Was there any outcome from these discussions and negotiations? Can the Minister give any hope to the 1,200 employees' families and the families of the apprentices based around north and west Dublin, County Meath and in Portlaoise, as I discover from a recent e-mail?

What is the position on the two deadlines, 22 May for bids in respect of base maintenance and 27 May for bid in respect of the maintenance and garage operations? The Minister has mentioned there have been several expressions of interest but she seems to be taking a passive role. That is the fundamental criticism the workforce and their families, the people we represent, make of the Minister and the Taoiseach, that they have behaved so passively with a crucial Irish industry which will cease to exist in a few weeks' time unless the Minister takes action. Is she prepared, with IDA Ireland or in any other way, to offer financial support to any other bids which have a major Irish component? They have been waiting for the Minister to take a strong leading role. It looks as if Sheik Mohammed and Sheik Khalifa and the owners of SR Technics in the Middle East have treated her as a total fool.

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