Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I want to join the other Members of this House who have spoken on the sale of Aer Lingus this morning. I travel around Europe like most of us, and arriving in new cities, one sees tram systems. What did we do with the tram system in Dublin? We pulled it apart about 100 years ago and now we are paying a fortune to put it back together. I look at Irish shipping, which was mentioned here yesterday, and it is destroyed; it is gone. I look at Aer Lingus now. The media is full of stories this morning of conflicts of interest by senior members of the board of Aer Lingus, who were advising the country and the Government. There seem to be conflicts of interest in the financial institutions that are advising the country and the Government. It is an extremely serious issue. To go back to what Senator O'Brien said earlier, we robbed the pensioners, the poor unfortunate pensioners, who gave their lives to build that company. We took their pensions off them, and we are now going to hand over approximately €560 million to IAG. We must get real about where we are going in this country. I know people on the other side of the House feel exactly the same way as I do. We need a debate in this House on Aer Lingus and we need it tomorrow. I second Senator O'Brien's call for that.

I also want to speak about the issue of humanity in our health service. I visited a neighbour last night who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease. He told me there are a number of different forms of the disease. This man was at the top of his profession, one of the most competent men I know, who worked for several multinationals. Six weeks ago, he was diagnosed. Three weeks ago, he was told he needed further tests-----