Vol. 340 No. 9
I move:—
That a sum not exceeding £106,005,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 1983, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Transport, including certain services administered by that Office, for a cost alleviation payment and for payment of certain grants and a grant-in-aid.
I would like to put on the record of the House that this Estimate is being accepted on the basis that a token Estimate will be put before the House to give us an opportunity to debate the full Estimate as soon as possible later on.
I would be glad if the Minister when replying would give the House some idea of when we might expect to get a token debate on this Estimate as there are some fairly pressing matters on the transport side that I for one, and I believe other Deputies, including, I suspect, Deputy De Rossa, would like a chance to get our teeth into.
I support Deputy Kelly's request to know when we can discuss this Estimate. A difficult situation exists on the Cork scene at present where Aer Lingus are cutting services and Cork Airport, we are told in leaked documents, have staff redundancies. I have asked the Minister that there would be an inquiry into how these leaks took place. It is important that we know if there are redundancies and, if there are, how the very confidential documents were leaked to a Member of this House. I believe that an inquiry is justified and because of that I insist that we have a very early debate on this matter.
I am as anxious as anybody to have a debate on the Estimate. I had hoped that we would have a debate today but I understand that in the circumstances it is not possible. I will try to arrange a very early debate on the Transport Estimate. I thank Deputy Wilson and the Opposition for agreeing to take the Estimate today in order to allow us to introduce a new subhead which Deputy Wilson and the previous Government had prepared.
Does the Minister think we might be able to take it before the Easter recess?
Certainly. I am prepared to take it today. Certainly it will be before Easter.
