Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Taoiseach is a repeat offender on this issue. Last spring, when SR Technics announced it would close down, the staff of SR Technics made a proposal whereby a package was put together which would continue aircraft maintenance and servicing.

On 1 April 2009, I put it to the Taoiseach in this House that 900 of the jobs at SR Technics could be saved if the Government supported that proposal and I argued that it should do so. In his response, the Taoiseach stated: "the Government will make every effort consistent with obtaining a viable proposal with the purpose of having an aircraft maintenance facility in Ireland." What did he do, however? The Dublin Airport Authority took hangar six back from SR Technics, thereby undermining the possibility of saving the jobs at that stage. This is the second time that hangar featured in the story.

We now know that Ryanair also made a proposal. We have heard all about this problem with hangar six, that problem with the DAA and correspondence between the IDA and the DAA, all of which culminated in the Tánaiste announcing as recently as yesterday that she was not prepared to meet Ryanair or even pick up the telephone to ring its chief executive until she was embarrassed into doing so as a result of the publicity that arose in the course of the day.

This is the second time the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Government have made a mess of the SR Technics situation and sacrificed jobs. These are no ordinary jobs. They involve people who can read an aircraft maintenance manual, something I doubt anybody in this House could make much sense of if it was put in front of us. When we speak grandiosely about the knowledge economy and new jobs, we are referring to these highly skilled people who can maintain an aircraft and get it back into the air. These jobs do not appear every day of the week. We had assembled a group of people at Dublin Airport who were capable of doing that work. SR Technics moved its operation to Switzerland and the jobs were lost as a result but the people were still available to carry out the work. All the Government had to do was show a bit of leadership by knocking heads together to ensure these jobs were not lost.

This story reveals what is at the heart of the problem with this Government and why it has become an obstacle to people keeping their jobs or returning to employment. The fact of the matter is that the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Government did little or nothing to save those jobs in the first place. When a businessman came along with a viable proposal, all kinds of obstacles were put in his way and they did not come around to addressing the issue until the Tánaiste was embarrassed into doing so. My question to the Taoiseach is simple. I ask him whether he stands over the handling of the issue by the Tánaiste.

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