Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and thank him for taking this debate. In or around 1 July, I was contacted by a distraught mother who had paid approximately ¤85,000 to have her son trained as an airline pilot. She borrowed some of that money and remortgaged a property, a story that is typical of many of the students caught in this situation. How much money has been lost by the students in total? The figure I have been given is between ¤5 million and ¤10 million. Why did the Pilot Training College, PTC, in Waterford accept money from unsuspecting students when there apparently were concerns about the company's viability as long ago as the end of 2011? That an organisation accredited by the Irish Aviation Authority, IAA, took substantial sums of money in such a situation is a serious issue.

What investigation has the Department carried out to date, if any? What investigation has the IAA conducted? Is the Minister in a position to ensure the trainee pilots, some of whom have only received part of their training, will have their training completed by another accredited college? Is the Director of Corporate Enforcement inquiring into this debacle? If not, why not? Did an auditor for the IAA or the PTC raise questions about the company's viability more than 12 months ago?

A further issue has come to my attention. I will not be disparaging towards the directors or others involved, but some students e-mailed me. Has another company set up shop in recent days in the premises owned and operated by the PTC since that company's liquidation? If so, are any of the old company's directors involved with the new one? They may not be.

During my probing of the issue, I learned that the training institute in Florida was owed approximately ¤1.4 million by the PTC. What became of that money? The PTC extracted substantial sums from many young people, primarily boys but also some girls, so that they might be trained as pilots. Something is rotten. I felt for the mother who approached me at a wedding. I knew her to see her. She explained her extreme plight. That was early in the situation when the trainees were still in Florida. The Minister assisted in getting them home, but a cost of $500 or $600 per student to bring them back from America is small change compared with the substantial sums they have lost.

I am deeply concerned by a number of the issues that have arisen. I do not know whether the situation is as serious as I have been led to believe by some of the students and their families, who are scattered throughout Ireland. Would it be appropriate to notify the Garda of what the company was doing? The issue has come to light again. In the past week to ten days, the High Court appointed a liquidator to PTC. During the summer, there was some hope for a plan to save the company and complete the trainees' training.

These people have been wronged and the State owes them a duty. I hope the Minister will be able to answer some of these questions or give some good news about the Department guaranteeing the completion of the training for these pilots.