Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I join my colleague, Senator Hannigan, in raising the issue of the continuing maintenance jobs debacle at Dublin Airport, which is rolling on with no obvious signs of resolution. There is more than 300 jobs, an entire industry, at stake. There is ample aircraft work in this country with the two major airlines. Dublin has been the service provider of choice for many international airlines, and that should not be lost. We have the skills, we have the experienced aircraft technicians and we have a batch of young apprentices waiting to complete their training.

The Government has let these people down, particularly in not keeping SR Technics open in the first place. The loss of Aer Lingus work was critical to SR Technics decision to pull out. At a time when the Government had a 25% stake in Aer Lingus, this was an obvious error. Following this, the Government failed to support a management initiative supported by the workforce to continue the business in Ireland and to retain most of the jobs.

The Government can sort this problem out. It must try to redeem itself by taking every step possible, including if necessary the pulling of the Aer Lingus lease on hangar 6. Apparently, legally, this is possible.

Mr. Michael O'Leary and Ryanair are not necessarily friends of ours, but I trust the company is serious about these maintenance jobs. Michael O'Leary has been critical of Government policy on aviation during the years and taken out full page advertisements in national newspapers and so forth to that effect. I hope, however, that this is not a factor in the Tánaiste adopting a position in which she does not wish to see herself being bullied, as she puts it, by Ryanair and Michael O'Leary. There is no place for pride at this critical point. I call on the Leader to urge the Tánaiste and the Minister for Transport to do everything possible on this matter. This is the last sitting day this week and I hope every effort will be made from now and over the weekend to resolve the matter. The business and skills are available.