Seanad report: The adjournment of the Seanad for the summer recess has had to be delayed for the taking of the Aer Rianta Bill.
The recess was to have begun tomorrow, but at least two sittings will be needed next week to deal with the Bill.
The leader of the House, Ms Mary O'Rourke, said yesterday that more and more she had come to the conclusion that the Seanad should not be a chamber that just railroaded Bills through.
She could not see how time could be made available for a proper debate on the Bill if the House were to be asked to accommodate discussion of that measure within the schedule set out for this week.
Mr Joe O'Toole (Ind) said that the way the Bill was being pushed through the Dáil was completely unacceptable. It would be appalling if someone started pulling strings to interfere with the way the Seanad ordered its business. The House was seen by too many people as being a sort of creature of ministers or merely a rubber-stamping operation.
Mr O'Toole said that he had previously sought a discussion on the advantages or disadvantages of privatisation.
"I believe that we are now looking at the same - the sort of 'make Willie a millionaire', so that he can join Denis out in Portugal, or whatever it is that we're now trying to do with Aer Lingus at this stage.
"I think it's time we looked at what it is that we gain out of privatisation, because we have started on the same route again now of having a go at the national transport service, telling us how bad the service is, telling us how much needs to be invested in it, telling us how the future is only bleak and telling us that NorthKorea and Cuba are the only countries who own their airlines.They are not telling us what it costs the US to own its airline at the moment."
Ms Kathleen O'Meara (Lab) said she was concerned at what a commentator had said last weekend about the Seanad rubber-stamping legislation such as the State airport bill.
Mr Terry Leyden (FF) asked the leader to convey to the Government his concerns that a buyout of Aer Lingus with venture capital would be "reneging on a national airline".
He went on: "I don't want a second-rate Ryanair representing this country as far as airlines are concerned and I don't want to see the shamrock replaced by the euro sign flying into Kennedy airport or Heathrow airport or anywhere else. "I am very concerned that, as a party that established Aer Lingus, we are going to sell it like Fine Gael sold the planes in the 1940s."
Mr David Norris (Ind) said that despite having had to pare down its on-board services, Aer Lingus was still a great national airline. The attitude of its staff was quite outstanding.
Mr Brendan Daly (FF) urged that the attention of the Minister for Transport be drawn to the grave anxiety felt by people in the midwest region, and in Shannon particularly, about future employment prospects, because of possible changes in relation to Aer Lingus and Aer Rianta.
Mr Micheal Kitt (FF) said credit was due to Aer Lingus management for having turned the airline's fortunes around. But he thought it was a step too far to be talking about a buy-out at this stage. Reports about the possible loss of over 1,000 jobs were worrying, he said.
Ms O'Rourke said that the turning around of Aer Lingus was a great success story. Now the airline needed new aircraft and it needed investment, so the matter had to be looked at one way or another.