Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)

Patients will be at risk if the accident and emergency ward is closed, as is intended, and the Minister is yet to make a statement on that matter.

I commend the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport on facing down Dublin Airport Authority as it attempted to make a huge bonus payment. This morning, however, we heard Bord Gáis paid €1.9 million in bonuses last year, while the Dublin Airport Authority paid €2.1 million, exactly the amount needed to reverse the cutbacks this Government will impose on rural school transport schemes, which will affect people across the State.

Other semi-State bodies, such as Bord na Móna, the Irish Aviation Authority and An Post, also paid bonuses but they will not tell us how much. These are State-owned companies and there is incredible anger, as the Taoiseach saw in Roscommon, and it exists from Sligo to Drogheda, but these companies are paying millions of taxpayers' money in bonus payments and big pensions, not on Fianna Fáil's watch but on the Taoiseach's watch. The Minister for Finance was quick to bring in legislation to increase the pension age for ordinary workers. What steps will he take to end the abuse of the bonus culture in these State companies? How much did Bord na Móna, the Irish Aviation Authority and An Post pay out in bonuses?

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