With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions 15 and 16 together.
The first investment by the air companies in a chain of hotels in this country was by Aer Rianta Teoranta in Irish and Intercontinental Hotels Limited in 1960.
From 1963 onwards the need for increased medium priced accommodation which would meet the needs of the air companies as well as general tourism requirements was the subject of numerous discussions and correspondence with both the airline and Bord Fáilte.
In July 1967 Aerlínte Éireann Teoranta wrote to inform me of their concern that adequate medium priced hotel accommodation in sufficiently large blocks strategically placed to cater for packaged holiday groups from North America would not be available. The company expressed their intention to explore whether direct intervention by them, if needs be on a basis of minority capital participation, would not encourage the provision of the necessary accommodation.
I discussed this proposal later in the month of July, 1967, with the chairman and director general of Bord Fáilte Éireann, who agreed with the view of the airline as to the need for additional accommodation of this kind and suggested that the airline should explore the position with existing hotel interests and with OIE. Aerlínte was informed of this view and of my agreement with it and in subsequent informal discussions with the chairman and general manager of Aerlínte Teoranta I encouraged them to pursue their enquiries with special emphasis on the desirability of entering into mutually satisfactory arrangements with OIE.
Detailed discussions took place between Aerlínte and Ostlanna Iompair Éireann Teoranta with a view to exploring the extent to which OIE could meet the airlines requirements for some sort of priority claim on suitable hotel accommodation to meet the requirements of the expected growth in package tour customers from North America. OIE was concerned for their part to provide hotel accommodation for all comers on an equal footing. The two organisations came to the conclusion that their individual interests would for the present best be served by separate arrangements in the hotel field.
On the 8th July, 1968, I was informed orally and in confidence by the chairman of Aerlínte Éireann Teoranta that he had decided on the advice of the management to recommend to the board of Aerlínte that they should take an equity interest in Ryans Holdings Ltd. as the only appropriate course to achieve the objectives of the airline in this field. I was later informed by the chairman that the board at its meeting on 18th July, 1968, after lengthy discussion and after seeing the reports of the consultants, gave approval in principle to a proposal being made in writing to Ryans Holdings Ltd. I was not aware before the 8th July, 1968, of the proposal to take an equity in Ryans Holdings Ltd. On the 27th August, 1968, I met the board of Aerlínte and discussed the proposal with them; the board then gave me full and satisfactory reasons in support of the commercial justification of the proposal. I was not informed in detail of the terms of the proposed agreement until my official approval was sought on 16th September, 1968, to the capital expenditure involved.