Brendan Daly (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister and thank him for the broad outline of the policies and objectives of this legislation. I want to put on record my appreciation for the work and record of achievement of Aer Rianta since it initially took over the management of Cork and Shannon Airports in 1969. The Minister will be aware that at that time some 300 staff from the Department of Transport and Power, as it was then, were transferred to the new authority. He will be glad to know that some of those are currently employed. There is some concern about pensions, and I will refer to that later. I want to express my appreciation of the co-operation I have received over the years from the board of Aer Rianta, various chairmen at different times and to thank, especially, people such as Mr. Jack Daly, the businessman from Ennis who was a member of that board for a long time. He made a major contribution to the company during a very difficult time in the development of Aer Rianta and of the airports generally. I also express my appreciation to some of the chief executives of the company, including Mr. John Burke, who retired recently. In Shannon the people I mainly had dealings with were Mr. Michael Guerin and Mr. Liam Skelly, who were there for a long time. Mr. Skelly, in fact, took very innovative opportunities to open up business between Ireland and the former Soviet Union long before the collapse of the Berlin Wall. The initial work done by Aer Rianta in opening new opportunities certainly copperfastened much employment at a time when there were real fears for the future of workers in the airports generally. I want also to place on record my appreciation of the work of some of the directors, especially the worker directors.