Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

That is a disgraceful comment. The Minister has launched an attack on a company that creates jobs. Over 432,000 jobs have been lost in recent times. Deputy Dempsey is the second Minister to indicate that he neither met or sought a meeting with representatives of Ryanair in order to discuss that company's proposals. Is it not a fact that Ryanair wrote to the Department, etc., stating that it wished to create 500 jobs? However, those in Government did nothing about it. Is it not the case that last week some Government Ministers went the extra 10,000 miles in order to try to attract jobs from New Zealand or wherever? Not one of them thought to travel to Dublin Airport in recent months in order to secure jobs. Instead of flying around the world, the Ministers to whom I refer should have sought a meeting with Michael O'Leary in order that they might discuss his plans with him.

Is it not a fact that the Minister failed to do this? His fundamental duty of care is to try to attract jobs to Dublin Airport. He is the line Minister with responsibility for the DAA but he did not seek to attract these jobs. He has again attacked, in a disgraceful fashion, a company which has created thousands of jobs and which is one of the largest airlines in Europe. This illustrates the Minister's completely callous attitude to the company in question and the jobs it creates.

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