Brendan Ryan (Labour)

The Senator should wait until I get really biased and prejudiced, then he would have something to talk about. While I thought I was supporting him, obviously my support was not to his satisfaction.

With every passing day it becomes increasingly urgent to have a debate about the way in which the debt incurred by Aer Rianta and officially, we were told, now incurred by the Dublin Airport Authority will now be distributed. It is of fundamental importance to the future of all our airports that this issue be resolved. The division of Aer Rianta into three companies has now manifestly been a disaster and it is more than time for a fundamental rethink. Perhaps the appropriate solution would be to revert to a single State company running the three big airports and let us move from there to improve the independence of each of the airports within that structure. We may now have three airports, none of which is financially viable and all of which are in danger of forcing their directors to retire on the grounds that they would otherwise be accused of reckless trading.

We need a debate specifically concerned, in my case, with Cork Airport where, based on back of an envelope calculations it would cost an additional €8 to €10 per passenger over a three to five year period, to pay off the debt. That is an enormous extra charge. While I am not a great fan, one of the airlines is reducing one of its services to and from Cork because charges have already increased. I call for an urgent debate on the future of our three major international airports, otherwise we will have a disaster.

I raise another issue which will inevitably produce some sort of disaster and which is mentioned in one of this morning's newspapers. I refer to the increasing trend of major Irish companies to move from limited to unlimited liability. It was noticed because a major international software company, with a base in Dublin, has transferred some of its companies from limited to unlimited liability, allegedly to prevent prying investigators finding out what it is doing about taxation. The report presents a list of well-known Irish companies, which have abandoned limited liability. If one of these companies goes bust we will again be treated to the spectacle of being hauled back here to bail out a major Irish company. Unlimited liability means that the company and its owners are liable for all its debts and they cannot transfer them to the company. We should make it clear that if debts or other problems arise, the individuals involved would be personally liable and the State would not bail them out. If they want to hide their affairs they should take the consequences.

In the past two weeks I have had reason to drive up and down the Naas dual carriageway in the dark on five or six occasions. It is only a miracle——