Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I compliment Senator O'Toole on the fact that Dingle's placename issue has now reached the august columns of this morning's edition of The Guardian.

The inability to publish the report into the Leas Cross mess is a direct consequence of the abdication of responsibility by the Minister for Health and Children to the HSE. If that report had been commissioned by the Minister and supplied to her, she could have placed it before an Oireachtas committee where it would have had absolute privilege. That it was not commissioned by a member of the Government and therefore not covered by privilege is the nub of the problem and that is a direct consequence of the legislation which established the HSE, which effectively, as every Member of this House knows, no longer gives out up-to-date, immediate responses to any query to do with the health services in the way possible under the old arrangement. Whatever was wrong with it, at least it was possible to find out what was going on. Now there is a corporate wrap-around which decides which information to put out and when.

The Leas Cross report has been caught up in that because it does not enjoy privilege in the way a report to the Minister would. If it were not for that, the report could be laid before the Oireachtas or supplied to the appropriate committee where it would be covered by privilege. That is the problem. In future, reports into such issues should be commissioned not by the HSE but by the Minister for Health and Children. That would solve the problem.

The soap opera of Aer Lingus is providing the nation with a level of entertainment it never expected. The two thrusting entrepreneurs are now using Aer Lingus as an issue over which to prove their machismo. Both of them have egos bigger than their fortunes and both of them made their money because of public decisions, one because of a monopoly given on the Gatwick line and the other because of a mobile telephone licence, while neither of them would allow a trade union into the house in any shape or form in any business they operate.

There is a difference, however, between them. One of them lives in Ireland, pays his taxes and is happy to stay here. The other, who loves to give the impression of benevolence and charity, left the country to avoid paying tax on the money he made in this country and he should be ashamed of himself.