Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail)

I join Senator Mooney in calling for an urgent debate with the Minister for Transport on the future role of Aer Lingus. As the Senator rightly pointed out the airline is experiencing dramatic changes in its direction. While I may not be as concerned as the Senator is over the shamrock, I am very concerned about the level of services being delivered to the west and the mid-west in particular. Unfortunately, Aer Lingus has taken a particular decision on cargo.

Senator Ó Murchú has talked about Irish people in their twilight years who have given so much to this country and England in the construction industry and many other industries. Many such people have just one final piece of dignity — the certainty that they can be buried in this country. Aer Lingus's decision to drop cargo services and the repatriation of bodies has had a detrimental effect on these people's opportunity to rest in peace in this country. We owe it to them to facilitate their burial in this country, not only to help them in their latter years, as Senator Ó Murchú has said. It is something we need to address and I would like to have a debate on it in the House.

The issue of connectivity in the mid-west region is a wider one. There was a debacle over the summer when Aer Lingus and EUjet sat down to do a deal, which never transpired. We believe that people in Aer Lingus misrepresented people in EUjet, the net result of which is that one can fly between Shannon and Dublin between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m., but one cannot return later than 1 p.m. It is appalling that an airline which is still in State ownership is not delivering for us. We should debate that in the House very soon.

I would like to conclude by speaking about those who are employed in the company and the news filtering out from the grand plan developed by Aer Lingus's three musketeers over the summer. We believe the plan was hatched to further their own interests and their pockets, based on the decisions which have been taken and the plans being put in place.