Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Change can be brought about, but not by standing away from the issues. It is for Ministers who own the company in the people's interest not to stand back and allow it to collapse. It is time for an intervention. If the Minister will not intervene, I will briefly raise the issue of funding. The Taoiseach will recall that, in the last budget while we were in office, we increased funding for the free travel scheme by €3 million. In this Government's budget in October, the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Varadkar, failed to provide any increase in funding for the scheme. An increase would indirectly assist the company.

The Department of Social Protection will make savings from the point that the Taoiseach just made, namely, the thankfully declining unemployment rate. Will the Government deploy a modest part of those savings to increase the subvention to the free travel scheme so as to increase it to something like the actual cost of provision?

That would ease the problem somewhat. If the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport will not do anything, will the rest of the Government try to assist in averting the destruction of an important company?

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