Joe O'Toole (Independent)

The Cathaoirleach will be aware I raise regularly in this House issues relating to the regions, especially the west. I do not understand what is going on in regard to Shannon Airport. This is the most political of all airports and the one that has taken more time than other airport, yet senior personnel in various Departments found it unnecessary to tell the political leadership, and the permanent Government appeared to keep this out of the sphere of political influence. Serious questions must be asked.

We know the Department of Transport and the Marine decided not to tell the Minister. We also know the Department of the Taoiseach decided not to tell the Taoiseach. We further know the Department of Transport and the Marine decided it was important enough to tell the civil servants in the Department of the Taoiseach but it was not important enough to tell any of the political leadership. We know that Aer Lingus found it important enough to communicate with the Dublin Airport Authority but that the Dublin Airport Authority, which was responsible for ensuring the viability of the Shannon Airport business plan, found it unnecessary to tell the Shannon Airport development group. Serious questions must be answered. We have been kept in the dark.

This is a bad day for politics if we have now reached the stage where the 226 people who are elected to the Dáil and Seanad to deal with these issues apparently know nothing about what is going on and these serious decisions are being taken in another sphere. Will the Leader raise with the Taoiseach the importance of clarifying all the issues? The Leader knows I am not raising this matter in any petty, party political fashion. This is as important to the Members on the Government side as it is to the Members of the Opposition. We should set up an ad hoc committee of the Houses or this House with compellability powers to call witnesses to find out who knew what, who told whom and why information was not passed on. I urge the Cathaoirleach to give this the most serious consideration.

The other matter I wish the Leader to arrange is for the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to explain his views on the self-regulation of the Law Society. One can look at this in two ways: either it is doing a superb job because it has unearthed important problems or it is not doing a good job because those problems arose in the first place. I do not know the answer. Many people are worried because this affects their houses and residences. It would be useful to debate the matter and receive clarification.