Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

I agree with the Deputy that it is wonderful to have an airline as commercially big, powerful and strong as Ryanair. I have no difficulty accepting that and stating that it is a good thing which has helped competitiveness in the aviation sector here also and that is extremely important. From the point of view of these jobs, every facility was given to Mr. O'Leary and the Tánaiste met him because it was her area of responsibility at the time. The best thing I could state is that if anybody really wants to know how serious the situation was they should look at the evidence given before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and the behaviour of the witness before that committee and form their own judgments.

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