Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I wish to share time with my three colleagues. We will speak for three minutes each.

I compliment my colleague and old friend Senator O'Sullivan for picking up the mores of Fianna Fáil so easily. It will come as a major surprise to the Senator that it was the Government that called the people of the mid-west whingers. He may talk to it about that.

We do not need to be objective about this matter. There is nothing objective about a decision which tears the heart out of a region and a community. This should never have happened because we forecast it last year. We said this would be the death knell of the regions. I mentioned Senator Boyle's airport the last time I spoke on the subject here and several times outside the House. We said that if Aer Lingus was privatised this would happen.

The Minister is right, this is a private company and there is a fiduciary duty on the management to make the best profit possible. It would be completely wrong and in breach of all governance principles for the board to try to undermine a decision that was not in the best interests of the stakeholders. We know that but we knew it last year too. The people of Shannon and the mid-west region have lost out because we did not take notice of what could have been anticipated.

It was not a Hobson's choice last year and I outlined the options then. It was all forecast but not by the people on the other side of the House who now say it is clear and obvious and is the way the sector works.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. How will he appoint the two directors? The posts should be advertised in the public media. The applications should be scrutinised and the applicants interrogated by either a committee of this House or an Oireachtas joint committee. They could outline their expertise, experience, independence, commitment and knowledge of the area and the regions for which they would be responsible. Who will be put in there and how will they do their jobs?

Senator O'Sullivan is right to say that the idea that the board of directors apparently was not privy to this astonishingly strategic and fundamental decision beggars belief. If I was a 25% shareholder in a company whose directors, whom I had appointed, did not know of such an important decision being taken they would be out the door. Let us appoint directors who mean something and would have the trust and confidence of the mid-west area and understand it.

Could the Minister of State do something for Shannon Airport such as put in a rail head, to make it the only airport on this island that would have an advantage over every other airport? There are two or three stations within four or five miles of the airport. Why not put that in now and give Shannon that advantage?