Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

During the controversy, was the Minister briefed by Mr. Michael O'Leary or others in Ryanair on the proposal for hangar 6? Does he have any information on where the much-talked of jobs were located? I did not notice it mentioned in any press release from Ryanair.

We got a good report from Mr. Barry O'Leary of the IDA at a meeting of the transport committee. He mentioned that hangers 1 to 6 were increasingly occupied by Aer Lingus, Ryanair, Dublin Aerospace and a garage operation. He told us hangars 3 and 4, which were then fully available to Mr. Michael O'Leary and Ryanair, were in a process of negotiation for a major maintenance project. Is the Minister aware of this?

With regard to aviation jobs in general, it is my understanding that since mid 2008, Ryanair removed approximately 500 jobs from the three main Irish airports in Dublin, Shannon and Cork. Was the Department given any information on this? I tried to raise this with the Minister on a number of occasions but I did not notice my Fine Gael colleagues jumping up and down about the loss of 500 critical jobs. Those were real jobs which would have been created at the three main airports but they have now gone elsewhere. Does the Minister have any comment to make on the matter?

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