Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is good news for a change and it is nice to sometimes have good news. The announcement this morning that Ryanair is taking a lease of a hangar at Shannon for aircraft maintenance, creating between 150 and 200 jobs with an investment of €10 million, is welcome news. We all know how successful Ryanair is and it is a company that is sustainable into the future. It is Irish-based and to have it bringing this business to the west and to Shannon is very good news and very welcome, especially given what we have been through over the last couple of years.

Medical scientists are on strike today and I think they have a case. I am calling on the Minister to engage with them. He and his officials need to recognise the very valuable work the medical scientists have done in the last two years. They dealt with the testing and tracing and with ensuring that we had the infrastructure to react to the pandemic, yet they find they are out on strike. We had an engagement this morning in the health committee with Paul Reid and, in fairness, he recognises the good work they have done. However, at this stage, I believe ministerial intervention is needed. We need to nip this in the bud. We cannot have a situation where medical scientists are going to be out on strike again next week and into the future. A resolution has to be found anyway, so let us find one.

I would like the Minister for Education to deal with the issue of the leaving certificate results date. Students are under enough pressure and this is not fair or acceptable. We had the whole debacle of what type of leaving certificate it was going to be in recent months, and we now have this stress on top of it. Clarity needs to be brought to that issue as a matter of urgency and I call on the Minister to deal with it.