Eugene Regan (Fine Gael)

I congratulate the chief executive officer of Ryanair, Mr. Michael O'Leary, on winning his court case in the Court of First Instance on the alleged illegal aid granted to his airline by the Walloon regional authority for services to Charleroi Airport. This is not the first win for Michael O'Leary in Europe. In The Irish Times today, he said Ryanair would not exist without deregulation having been introduced in Europe and initiated by then Irish European Commissioner, Mr. Peter Sutherland.

Michael O'Leary also said in the article that he has been knocked about by Europe. The most welcome news in the article is that the Ryanair boss pledged to campaign vigorously for the Lisbon treaty. It is interesting that his main argument for doing so is the economic one. He said if we are to dig ourselves out of the economic mess, we need to export and compete more in Europe. He is right about that. The slogan for the second Lisbon treaty referendum campaign should be that our choice is either Lisbon or Reykjavik.

If we think of the misleading and confused campaign that took place on the first referendum, we need Michael O'Leary's straight talking to confront the, at times bizarre, arguments of the "No" campaign. While we might find Michael O'Leary can be forthright and use choice language, it is the type of language needed to cut through the illogical and emotive arguments of the "No" side. This is a very important.