Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I could not leave on the day requested and, subsequently, booked a flight for one month later for exactly the same period. I sought credit for the flight that I could not take and Ryanair did so. Were I to book the flight for 30 July it would have cost me €287. As I had already paid €287 for a flight in June, Ryanair credited me for the money I had spent on the flight and only charged me €189.40 to change my flight, which was an outrageous abuse. When Ryanair has one's money it says, "Stuff you, we're keeping your money." If one wants to change a flight one has got to practically pay the full price to travel on an alternative flight. If one took the Government taxes out of what Ryanair allowed me, then I would get nothing back and I must pay for the full flight the second time around.

We need to bring the relevant Minister in here to debate the matter. Looking around the House I can see on the faces of Members that other people have suffered the same fate as me. Ryanair's charging system is an outrageous abuse. One can change a seat on a ship that is due to sail to the UK or France and the shipping company will not penalise the customer. One can change travel details for most other transport methods. Indeed, a couple of years ago in the United States I had reason to change flights. The airline in question bent over backwards to facilitate me and charged me $40. Recently Ryanair changed focus to become customer friendly. If this is customer friendly then I shall eat my hat. I ask the Leader to arrange for the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport to come in here for a full debate in order to see if we can do something to curb such practices. The only two airlines that provide flights all over Europe are Aer Lingus and Ryanair.