Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)

I again refer to the issue of the trainee pilots who are stranded in Florida. I also wish to nail a couple of lies. I gave an interview on a Waterford radio station this morning and it was stated a relation of mine was one of the trainees involved. That is not true. I know some of the students - three of them are from the constituency in which I live - but they are not related to me. I was in contact with three or four of the trainees in Florida early this morning and they informed me that they had not received any money to book flights home. They may be reimbursed in respect of such flights, but $600 or $700 dollars is no good to students who have each lost €85,000.

The pilot training group e-mailed Senators and it might be worth reading a paragraph from that communication. It states:

We understood and expected that a school that carried a licence from the IAA would be one that would be responsible, properly run and safe for us to pay our money into. Little did we know at the time how shallow the IAA assessment was and how meaningless IAA approval was to count for in terms of being genuine and trustworthy.

I deliberated on the option offered to me by the Leader of tabling a motion on the Adjournment on this matter. However, many questions remain unanswered. The Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Leo Varadkar, does not even know the answers to these questions. A carefully couched parliamentary response - padded and fluffed up - to a matter tabled for discussion on the Adjournment would not answer many of the questions I have posed. I sent a total of 16 questions to the Minister, but he has not supplied answers to them.

Many of the students involved have lost the €85,000 they invested. They cannot progress in their chosen careers because they do not have training certificates owing to the fact that most of them could not complete the course. Their dreams have been shattered. These 80 young Irish people will be returning home to join the dole queue. Some of their parents remortgaged their homes or obtained loans in order to help them to finance their studies and the repayments on these are not going to be met.

Because of the serious nature of this matter, I again propose an amendment to the Order of Business that this item be dealt with as a matter of urgency and that the Minister come before the House to explain what is happening. All we are seeking is honest answers. Almost three weeks ago the students involved received notice from the Florida Institute of Technology to the effect that all of their training had been cancelled and that the money they had put up had never been paid to it. To where did the €10 million to €15 million collected from these students go? The trainee pilots, particularly those who are Irish citizens, deserve answers. In fairness, Senator Cáit Keane was the first person to raise this matter which has been raised on a regular basis in the House during the past three weeks. This House - more than the Lower House - deserves the attention of the Minister in dealing with it. The students who have literally been left without parachutes deserve better treatment than they have received to date.