Shane Ross (Independent)

It was unproved and untrue yet shows us how Aer Rianta is moving independently in thwarting the Government's wishes. Whatever the rights and the wrongs of the Government's proposals, such a situation cannot be allowed to continue. When the Minister announced his original plans for Aer Rianta, it was obvious that the board did not approve. I cannot understand why he did not sack the Aer Rianta chairman, Mr. Noel Hanlon. It was an extraordinary act of weakness to allow the board to stay in office while it continued to thwart his wishes. As a result, there has been a stand-off for two years where any progress in Aer Rianta has been paralysed. The board, appointed by previous Governments, has manoeuvred day and night to ensure the wishes of the duly elected Government are not put in place.

Further complications arose in this political battle when the board united with the trade unions in obstructing the Government's plans. The Government has since been vacillating in the face of this. Why has the Minister tolerated the obstruction of both the board and the unions? The only explanation for this effective obstruction is the commonly held one, that the union leaders have an inside track in the Cabinet, resulting in the whole Cabinet not supporting Mr. Brennan's plans for Aer Rianta. It is time for the Taoiseach to explain his role behind the scenes. Was he fully behind what the Minister for Transport and other Ministers pushed for the future of Aer Rianta? Or was the Taoiseach a fifth columnist backing the trade union agenda at Cabinet? It is very important that we know this because if we do not know about the internal dynamics of the Cabinet and believe the Minister's colleagues have thwarted him, how can we believe when operations day comes, on 30 April 2005, that the future Ministers for Transport and Finance will support and approve the business plan? This game is not played out. The passage of the Bill on Second Stage today — and it will be passed despite the lukewarm support of Government Members — will not mark the end of the story. If Deputy McCreevy continues to be Minister for Finance will he approve an operational plan produced by these three authorities? He is a superb and brilliant Minister for Finance with a totally different agenda to the Minister for Transport, and is reputed to have played a role in this saga that is not part of the agenda of the Minister for Transport.

This is a political rather than an economic mess. It has been delayed two years due to political goings-on, because of Mr. Hanlon's alliance with the unions, and their being in touch with the Taoiseach. The Minister was paralysed by the political pressures to which he was subjected and because the Aer Rianta deal was part of the social partnership agreement. How on earth did the future of Aer Rianta become part of a pay deal negotiated in Government Buildings? This Bill has nothing whatsoever to do with pay. It may have something to do with jobs but it has no connection with pay.

The structure of the new boards is puzzling and inadequately explained to us but the Minister's appointment of new boards of a largely non-political nature is courageous and welcome. No doubt he came under severe pressure to appoint his friends and cronies, and those of other people, to the board. Instead, he created a board with a commercial mandate. Whatever one may think of the individuals involved, its members have commercial credentials, an excellent and welcome development.

I do not accept that Dublin Airport or Aer Lingus are strategic national assets. That is the language of yesterday. We do not need to own the airports as if they will be of use to us in war or trade. We do not need Aer Lingus. We need competition and to be able to sell the airports. I cannot understand why Dublin Airport must be exclusively owned by the State. Why not address the issue of a second terminal? Apart from the fact that Michael O'Leary is taunting everybody in this House and thereby not doing his own cause any good——