Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Taoiseach appears to have become an expert on the size of hangars overnight. This is not about hangars 1, 2, 6 or whatever because his responsibility in this is the strategic importance of this particular business. Last year when SRT decided it was transferring its operations to Switzerland, the Taoiseach needed to say to himself - which he did not do - as we said to him at the time that this was a strategic business that we could keep. We are an island and aircraft maintenance and servicing is something we should do and we should not lose. We have built up a skilled pool of labour at Dublin Airport that can be reassembled to maintain this business and the maximum number of jobs. The Taoiseach did not take that approach. He should never have ended up in a situation where it is now about the size of various hangars and the terms of various contracts. The Government's job was to say there is a strategic business with sustainable jobs that can be saved and people can be put to work. The Government parties missed the time. They lost all of last year and they have ended up at the 11th hour with a gun to their heads, flapping around between one hangar and the next because they left it too late.

It is the Taoiseach and the Government's responsibility to resolve this issue. A total of 200 jobs have been lost and potentially another 300 jobs could be lost. The test for the Taoiseach, to which we will return, is whether he will ensure the 300 jobs will be available at Dublin Airport. How he does that is a matter for the Government. If he has boxed himself into a corner, that is his problem but his responsibility to the people whose families and livelihoods depend on those jobs is to secure them. Will he do that?

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