Michael McCarthy (Labour)

I agree with Senator O'Toole on that very important issue. Government-appointed consultants have made three important points on the break up of the airports, which has become known colloquially as the "Brennan plan". First, no business case has been made for the Brennan plan. Second, higher charges will result in three of the airports involved. Third, no additional terminal capacity for Dublin Airport is envisaged, Shannon Airport will be non-viable and Cork Airport will be a loss maker. I repeat that the consultants producing this report were Government appointed. I appeal to the Leader to provide the House with a statement of clarity on official Cabinet policy in this area. The trade unions have seen a PricewaterhouseCoopers report which states the report on the Brennan plan casts doubt on the financial viability of the breaking up of the airports. This has very serious implications, not least for the local economies around Shannon and Cork. It is a serious issue and it is quite clear that there is no unanimity on the issue at Cabinet level. The Minister for Transport, Deputy Brennan, was unable to secure the support of his colleagues at last Tuesday's Cabinet meeting.

Senator Coghlan has been very active on the State payments scheme and recently introduced a fine Private Members' Bill. It is now clear that a practice in terms of interest and engineering charges, which is largely confined to Cork, Mayo, Sligo and Limerick is costing house buyers up to €7,000 due to the operation of the scheme. It is not good enough. It is not very healthy if people must pay 90% of the cost of houses before they can take possession. This militates against many young couples. What are the intentions of the Leader in this regard? I do not mean to steal the thunder of any other Member on this issue, but I would be very interested to know when legislative work will get under way.