Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

I am concerned here with support of the aviation sector.

Strategically, aviation is very important to Ireland. I assure Deputy McGrath we all appreciate the difficulties involved, as many of those in SR Technics have been there for a considerable period, through many changes, and have given a considerable amount of personal support to the aviation sector. This is not just a Dublin issue; it is a regional issue for the surrounding counties.

A bid has been accepted, although we are not au fait with the nature of that bid. Given that none of the bids are Irish, we are going back to the Irish bidders to ascertain what can be done to support them if they wish to establish a new start-up or proceed with the other two tenders that are presently forthcoming.

IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland have set up a special task force on specialist aviation support, given the importance of this sector and the numbers of people involved. It is on that basis that we provided additional resources to support it, and we have provided resources all over the world, in all of the offices, to ensure we can retain as many jobs as possible within that sector.

This has been a major disappointment to all of us, but it is important that we continue in resilient fashion to support the existing companies which have put forward their views. I will be meeting with one of those unsuccessful bidders this evening to ascertain the direction it wishes to take and the support we can give them. That will be equally available to others.

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