Labhrás Ó Murchú (Fianna Fail)

I second the amendment to the Order of Business. It is an indictment of the way we do business and of the two Chambers of the Oireachtas that the young trainee pilots and their families find it necessary to come to the gates of parliament to highlight a plight not of their making. These young people could just as easily have wallowed in the demoralisation which comes with recession and high unemployment, but instead they showed ambition, vision and courage to pursue a difficult career. It is important that bureaucracy, demarcation of duties or responsibilities or passing the buck should not become an obstacle to these people receiving fair play and justice. This should be a given for them. These young people are role models for all the young people who find things difficult at this time. I am thinking of the thousands of young people who have had to emigrate from Ireland.

The families of the young trainee pilots have had to invest heavily in their training and have had to borrow to do so. These families must be absolutely disillusioned and frustrated at this stage. There have been some great contributions to the debate since it was initiated by Senator Denis O'Donovan and I am delighted the issue is being kept alive. The problem is that this issue will go below the radar very quickly and these families will have to go back and face what may be ruination. Then these young people will feel that they do not really matter to their government, to us as legislators or to the general public. If we do the right thing in this case, that will impact on other issues facing us and some positivity will come out with regard to how we respond to problems. I plead with the House not to ignore young people of the calibre of these trainee pilots. If we ignore them, we are not doing what is right and are doing further damage to the morale of the nation.