Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

I agree with Senator O'Toole on the issue of employment raised in recent day by Mr. Michael O'Leary and Ryanair. Ryanair is very professional and good at coming forward with ideas when it has not succeeded in getting its own way. It suggests it could have done something if it had been allowed to do something else. There is a touch of the George Lee about it. Not to be facetious, it is like saying, "I could have solved all the problems of the world if the Fine Gael Party had allowed me to do it." I am sure that if employment can be created at Dublin Airport to replace that provided at SR Technics, it will be created. There is no better professional organisation in the world than the IDA, in conjunction with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, to achieve this and I am confident it will happen through ongoing negotiations. There are legal issues involved. If there is a contract in place in respect of hangar No. 6, it must stand. One cannot just say, "If you gave it to me, I could do this or that." That is hypothetical hyperbole.

I ask the Leader to raise an issue with the Minister for Foreign Affairs. The murder of an alleged member of Hamas has taken place in Dubai and it has been alleged that three of the suspects carry Irish passports. Their pictures appear in the media in the Middle East today. The Department of Foreign Affairs has, through the British media, denied the existence of the people concerned. The Irish passports are counterfeit, but that message is not getting through to the United Arab Emirates and Dubai. It is important we get it across because the incident is having a serious impact on our image there. Our ambassador in Abu Dhabi needs to make it clear that the passports are false and that the people concerned are in no way connected with Ireland or Irish people. The United Arab Emirates is an important trading partner for us. Some of the media reports, in Gulf News for example, draw connections with Oliver North who used an Irish passport in 1986. I would appreciate it if the Leader raised the matter with the Minister as a matter of urgency.