Private Members' Business. - Confidence in Minister: Motion (Resumed).
The following motion was moved by Deputy Noonan on Tuesday, 6 November 2001:
That Dáil Éireann:
conscious of the vital importance of an adequate standard of infrastructure for the modern Irish economy in order to meet the commercial and social needs of the country and recognising the current major structural deficits across a range of semi-State companies in which the Minister for Public Enterprise is the main shareholder and for which she has direct responsibility, deplores:
–her failure to convince her colleagues of the short-term nature of Aer Lingus's difficulties, the special case for direct State aid for the company and her agreement to the shedding of 2,026 jobs which will irreparably weaken the national airline;
–her failure to provide the necessary resources to ensure Iarnrod Éireann provides a reliable and efficient train service for passengers;
–her failure to ensure Iarnrod Éireann freight facilities are properly planned and marketed with a view to shifting freight from road to rail leading to a situation where Iarnrod Éireann is planning to lay off 300 of its 600 full-time freight workforce;
–her failure to ensure that, apart from very restricted park-and-ride facilities, the long promised traffic relief measures to ease Dublin traffic chaos are put in place;
–her failure to ensure the long-promised integrated ticketing is introduced;
–her decision to delay approval of Luas with the result that it will be at least 2005 before the new light rail transport system is commissioned;
–her failure to ensure ESB power generation and grid capacity are developed and upgraded which is causing serious supply difficulties for both commercial and domestic consumers;
–her failure to ensure the ESB will be allowed to submit a preliminary bid for the purchase of eight power supply companies in Poland having spent £3 million in the preparation of the bid and which has caused significant damage to the reputation of the ESB internationally;
–her mismanagement of the Eircom floatation which has left almost 500,000 shareholders incurring considerable losses;
–her failure to put in place the necessary regulatory regime in the electricity and telecom sectors which has led directly to supply problems and companies abandoning their plans to enter these markets;
–her failure to ensure CO2 emissions are kept within the Kyoto Protocol guidelines;
–her Department's failure to sustain the campaign against Sellafield initiated by the previous Government;
–her failure to produce a coherent strategy for the usage of natural gas from the Corrib gas field;
–her failure to ensure efficient passenger services at Dublin Airport;
–her failure to insist on the delivery of broadband services to the regions which militates against the Government's so-called policy of job regionalisation,
calls on the Taoiseach to remove the Minister for Public Enterprise from her current office.
Debate resumed on amendment No. 1:
To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:
commends the Minister for Public Enterprise on her substantial record of achievement in building a secure platform for sustainable development in each of the pivotal infrastructural sectors of transport, energy, and communications over the past four years and in particular:
–notes the progress being made to ensure Aer Lingus has a secure future and the Government's efforts to maintain the maximum number of sustainable jobs;
–notes the significant investment in new facilities at the State airports and in financial support for the regional airports over the past four years;
–commends the Minister for ensuring the future of the railway network after so many years of low investment and the securing of Government approval for a five year £430 million railway safety programme;
–notes the unprecedented levels of capital and current funding for public transport;
–welcomes the improvements to Dublin public transport, including the upgrading and extension of the DART system and the introduction of almost 300 new buses in recent years;
–notes that Luas has obtained light railway orders for its core routes in west and south Dublin and that construction is under way and on schedule for completion by the stated target date of October 2003;
–notes the appointment of the Telecommunications Regulator by the previous rainbow coalition Government and the appointment of electricity and aviation regulators by this Government;
–notes that, as a result of EU directives and national legislation, power generation is a fully liberalised activity licensed by the Commission for Electricity Regulation;
–notes that an investment programme of record proportions in the transmission grid is under way and will bring the electricity infrastructure up to international standards;
–welcomes the contribution that developments in sustainable energy are making to minimising CO2 emissions;
–recognises the Minister's strong commitment in implementing the Government's campaign for bringing about the closure of Sellafield and supports the Government's current legal actions against the UK Government in regard to the Sellafield MOX plant;
–welcomes the unprecedented level of investment in natural gas infrastructure that will bring both Corrib and imported gas to many new areas of the country as well as to existing customers;
–notes that full liberalisation of the telecommunications market was achieved by 1999, ahead of target, and
–welcomes the initiatives undertaken by the Minister for Public Enterprise in the National Development Plan 2000-2006 and in promoting the development of broadband communications networks in the regions.
–(Minister for Public Enterprise).
In the callous and ignorant diatribe delivered by the Minister for Public Enterprise, Deputy O'Rourke, last night she signally failed to respond to one of the salient criticisms contained in the motion before the House. This wilful ignorance will surprise no one because Deputy O'Rourke's record as Minister for Public Enterprise has been a disaster. Her efforts to avoid accountability and responsibility by engaging in a juvenile rant that would be out of place in a school yard, let alone a national parliament, are testament to her failure. I will remind her of the facts.
Over 2,000 workers in Aer Lingus are to be thrown onto the dole queues. The Minister's supposed concern about the workforce is undermined by her complete failure and that of the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Finance to fight in Brussels to secure State aid. The Tánaiste and the Minister for Finance do not believe in State aid and the Taoiseach does not believe in anything that does not have the imprimatur of the previous pair, and the Minister does not believe in anything except her own ego. The European Commissioner, Spain's answer to Margaret Thatcher, is determined to see the dismantling of Europe's airlines and the Minister, Ireland's answer to Margaret Thatcher, will not stand in her way. Aer Lingus workers and their families will have to pay the price.
The Luas project was stopped in its tracks by the Minister and the Tánaiste. The project was put into cold storage while the hare-brained scheme of driving a Luas tunnel beneath Dublin city centre was examined. EU funding and public faith in the project was lost. As a result, it will be another 25 months at least before one Dublin commuter is carried on a Luas carriage.
The ESB's bid to enter the Polish market was blocked by the Government at the behest of the Tánaiste and the Minister for Finance. The ESB had invested a huge amount of time and resources in this excellent project. The decision was a huge blow to the morale and confidence of everyone in the ESB. The Minister knew well the effect this cowardly decision would have on the company, yet she did not lift a finger to defend a semi-State company which was determined to adapt and grow in the new European market conditions.
Even this arrogant and bombastic Government no longer has the brass neck to defend the Eircom flotation. There is the complete absence of a reference to the flotation from the Government's face-saving amendment to the motion this evening. The flotation was a great symbol of Deputy O'Rourke's tenure in the Department of Public Enterprise. Her enthusiasm to jump on board in every photo opportunity and PR gimmick associated with the flotation was unbounded. When the going got tough, however, the Minister got going and refuses to account for her role in the ripping-off of up to 500,000 small investors and the eventual transfer of ownership of the company to a handful of media conglomerates for a song.
In recent weeks the Government's bizarre decisions in relation to the operation of the BNFL plant at Sellafield have been laid bare in this House. The Government inexplicably disbanded the expert legal and scientific team assembled to lead the campaign against the plant. It also mothballed the inter-ministerial committee initiative. This incompetence and laziness let BNFL off the hook. As a result, we are now faced with the prospect of the huge MOX plant being commissioned in this ready-made nuclear weapon just miles off our coast. On each and every occasion when the Minister had to fight her corner in Cabinet, when she had to stand up to the Harney-McCreevy axis and argue the case for public enterprise, she failed. She has turned her back on public enterprise; she runs away from the crunch issues in her Department and escapes out the door with a perfectly crafted script to deliver in her favourite role as the mother goddess of e-commerce, when we all know that she could not tell one if a computer is run on gas or electricity.
Where is the integrated ticketing system for public transport? The report has been on the Minister's desk for three years and nothing has happened. What has the Minister done to ensure the continuity of electricity supplies? The answer is zilch, nothing. In a desperate bid to avert blackouts in the winter of 2000-01 the ESB had to lease emergency generators at a cost of £60 million. The Minister has tied the hands of the ESB and carried out a vindictive and damaging campaign against it. Her departure would be the best news the company could receive.
The Minister's pre-occupation with privatisation has placed a cloud over the whole semi-State sector. Confidence among workers and management has been systematically eroded since she has taken office. The crises that have occurred in the management and board rooms of Aer Lingus, CIÉ and Telecom Éireann when in public ownership are just the most visible examples of the damage that the Minister has caused throughout the public sector.
Under the guise of an IPO, a trade sale or strategic alliance, or whatever other gem her spin-doctors can come up with, the Minister's real strategy for the public sector is the same. It is to sell off as much as possible as quickly as possible. She is the only Minister in the history of the State who is actively working to achieve the demise of her own Department.
The Minister's repeated utterances in this Chamber about her concern and admiration for the workers in the semi-State sector are nothing more than weasel words. She is intent on selling down the river as many jobs as possible in the sector. She has no understanding of it because she has no understanding of the concept of universal service. Universal service is a basic, democratic and social doctrine that demands that certain essential services are delivered to citizens across the State at a common price as of right. Our semi-State sector has delivered universal service to our citizens. However, urged on by the privatisation buccaneers who hold office in the Department of Finance and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, the Minister is determined to sacrifice this principle on the altar of the free market and competition. Access to high quality services such as electricity, telephone communications and transport will increasingly become dependent on one's ability to pay. What the Government has done to the health service will be replicated across the electricity, transport and telecommunications sectors. The social apartheid created by our two tier health system will be copperfastened by a two tier transport system, a two tier electricity network and a two tier telecommunications market. The only guiding principle in this regime will be the ability to pay a big fat cheque for access to the services.
The Minister's time in office has been a nightmare for the semi-State sector. Every company in which the Government retains a shareholding on behalf of the citizens of this country is being lined up for privatisation. It is impossible for workers or management in these companies to plan for the future or meet the new market challenges as long as this ever present threat hangs over their heads.
Last night the Minister issued an invitation to debate the issues. I will warmly accept her challenge. I notice she is not in the House to take part in the debate. Her keenness for public debate has not been a feature of her tenure in office. She seems to have negotiated a contract with "Morning Ireland" that guarantees her an uninterrupted slot every time she appears. Her conversion to public debate is welcome and I look forward to exposing her inertia, incompetence and inability to the citizens of this country. It is time for her to go. Last night she demonstrated that while she may still be able to compete with the Minister of State, Deputy Willie O'Dea, for the title of clown of the Oireachtas, she has no vision or plan for public enterprise in this country. Her record shows that she is opposed to the concept of public enterprise. It is time that she went.
I wish to share my time with Deputies Roche and Noel Ahern. I strongly oppose the motion tabled by members of the Opposition. It gives a completely wrong impression of Government policy across a range of public service sectors. Nobody would deny that the Minister for Public Enterprise, Deputy O'Rourke, has an extremely challenging job. She has wide-ranging responsibilities across a range of semi-State companies, which include Aer Lingus, Aer Rianta, Bord Gáis and the ESB to name a few. Many new directives and regulations are being implemented within the European Union which seek to deregulate the operation of some of those companies. The Minister also has responsibility for the transport sector, which covers the operations of bus, rail, and air services.
The motion states that the Government has not made a convincing argument about the short-term nature of Aer Lingus' difficulties. That is nonsense. No economic sector in the world is immune from the repercussions of what happened in America on 11 September. Many businesses will have to change the manner in which they carry out their operations in order to survive in what is now a new economic climate. We all must face up to these new realities.
The area most greatly affected as an immediate consequence of the recent terrorist attacks is the aviation industry. I do not think there is one person in Ireland who does not know that Aer Lingus has financial difficulties. One need only look to the statistics presented to us on the losses in revenue by Aer Lingus in recent weeks. The reductions in the number of people travelling on transatlantic flights have greatly reduced as a result of the terrorist attacks in America. Aer Lingus accounts for 70% of the direct traffic between Ireland and America. Ireland ranks seventh among the 15 EU member states in passenger numbers carried on an annual basis on direct flights to the United States. Transatlantic routes account for up to 60% of the profits of Aer Lingus. Transatlantic routes are crucial in attracting US tourists and in facilitating business and cargo traffic. In tourism terms, our dependence on the US market is on average three or four times greater than the other member states of the European Union. This is matched only by a similar level of dependence in Britain.
The Minister and the Government are committed to the task of securing the future of Aer Lingus and with it protecting as many sustainable jobs as possible. The Government has decided in principle that the survival plan for Aer Lingus should be rapidly agreed and implemented in all its aspects. That would facilitate private sector interests in investing in Aer Lingus in order to provide a source of funding to support the survival plan.
The Minister has met the central representative committee of Aer Lingus unions on a number of occasions recently and the Taoiseach and the Minister have met representatives from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. The Government wants to protect Aer Lingus and to ensure that it is a viable entity for many years to come.
I welcome the recent statement by the Minister that it is very important that there is a viable future for Shannon Airport. It is Government policy that Aer Lingus and Shannon Airport survive as viable entities because of the important economic roles they played in our economy. More than two million passengers use Shannon Airport. The development of that airport is important not only in terms of protecting many jobs which are dependent on the airport's continued viability but also in terms of the importance of Shannon airport in attracting new tourists to the mid west region. Put in the simplest terms, Shannon Airport is the cog which develops the wheel of tourism in that region. The Government is extremely active in ensuring that Shannon Airport has a future, that jobs there are protected and that the mid western region continues to grow and prosper.
There is an inextricable link between the need to protect the viability of Aer Lingus and the need to protect the viability of Shannon Airport. The Minister shares this view and is extremely active on this issue. We should not forget that direct transatlantic links contribute tremendously to the development of manufacturing and the services industries in the mid west region. Direct links are important in terms of the transportation of cargo. This is particularly the case for the hi-tech sector industries.
Aer Lingus has successfully secured access to land in many key airports in the United States of America in recent years. Due to the terrorist attacks, Aer Lingus has had to withdraw from operating some Irish-American routes in recent weeks. It is important that Aer Lingus maintains the right to reopen these routes as greater consumer confidence is secured in travel in general and transatlantic travel in particular.
To try to pretend, as the Opposition seeks to, that the Government is not investing in the aviation sector is inaccurate. The facts speak for themselves. There has been a capital investment of more than £0.25 billion by Aer Rianta in State airports between 1997 and 2000. It is anticipated that Aer Rianta will spend £100 million in the 2001 on State airports alone. The Opposition seeks to convey the impression that the Government is not committed to all regions, but that is also false. In the aviation sector alone, almost £20 million has been allocated to support regional airports and regional air services since 1997 by means of capital grants and marketing support. The Minister has been particularly innovative in this regard.
An Independent Commission for Aviation Regulation has been established. Passenger numbers for Dublin, Shannon and Cork airports have increased from 13 million in 1997 to more than 18 million in 2000.
I wish to share my time with Deputies Noel Ahern, Michael Kitt and O'Flynn.
It is often said that people should be judged by their actions rather than by their words. There should not ever be an occasion when that is truer than in this debate. A number of Opposition luminaries are in the House. Could any of them tell us exactly how much money they invested in the public transport sector when their parties were in Government in 1996 or 1997? If they want to phone a friend, go 50:50 or ask the audience, I am willing to be lenient, but they are silent.
(Mayo): It worked then, that is what is important.
(Mayo): We are not silent. It worked then.
—for every single pound that they invested—
If the Deputy Roche wants a reaction, he will get one.
This is the old fascist approach of shouting a person down.
Deputies Farrelly and Roche, I must have order.
Deputy Roche asked a question.
Mr. Higgins (Mayo): He should not invite comment.
For every single pound that you invested when you were in Government in 1996—
The Deputy should address his remarks through the Chair.
For every single pound that the Fine Gael-Labour Government invested in public transport in 1995 and 1996, this Government has invested £100,000. I want to set the record straight. During the period of the last Administration the total Exchequer capital investment in public funding in the last two years it was in power was a miserly £400,000. That sum would not buy a single bendy bus and it is £100,000 short of cost of buying two double decker buses. When it comes to politics, it seems that if there was an olympic gold medal for brass neck politics, the former Administration would have it in perpetuity. The Government has made the biggest single investment in public transport by any Government in the history of the State.
It can be seen on the streets outside.
The Deputy's party had its chance in 1996 and it failed. In 1996, when the Deputy's party was in power, it invested £400,000 in public transport.
(Mayo): It is the same in the health service.
It probably invested £400,000 in that too. By 1999, the Government had invested £132.4 million. That figure rises to £271.5 million this year. I put these figures on the record not to suggest that they are enough but to show that historically there has been a catastrophic failure by all Governments to invest in public transport. However, a Government that invested £400,000 in a full financial year has a brass neck to criticise a Government that has increased that investment by several thousand per cent.
It must be said that previous Governments also had dismal records. Since 1997 the Government has funded the extension of the DART to Greystones and Malahide and has provided funding for track and ancillary signalling works, some of which is necessitated by decisions which were endorsed by Fine Gael Members when they were in government and held the transport portfolio. Last year the Government invested more in a park and ride facility in Greystones than the Government of which Fine Gael was a part invested in the entire public transport sector. A total of £800,000 was invested in one public park and ride facility.
It is in Greystones. I can show it on the map to the Deputy. Greystones should be well known to Fine Gael Members because in 1995, ten days before the by-election in Wicklow, the then Government hoisted a broken down DART train onto the back of a flatbed truck and brought it to the town to announce it intended to extend the DART to Greystones. Even though the then Minister was good with finances, he forgot to provide money for the extension. That was done by this Government.
Public transport has received catastrophic under-investment by all Governments of the State, and the type of debate we are having now will not improve matters. The Opposition Deputies rightly ask if the service is any better. There are still major problems to be addressed but they will not be addressed by the type of mendacious politics in which we are engaging. They will be addressed if Oireachtas Members, parties and committees address the issue of catastrophic failure to deliver. A service that is getting more than £270 million this year, as opposed to £400,000 five years ago, should be infinitely better. However, it is not.
That is what we are saying.
I accept that. There are deficiencies in the service because there has been a history of under-investment. Look at the extension of the DART which was promised when the Fine Gael Party was in Government but for which it provided no funds. The extension has been achieved. It is interesting to note that the DART was operating up to last year with the same rolling stock that was bought in 1984.
There has been catastrophic under-investment in public transport throughout the history of the State. The Minister stands head and shoulders above any other Minister in that she is at least making the effort. She is not talking about it but doing it. That is probably unpalatable for the Opposition parties but they should at least have the political honesty to recognise what is being done.
It is easy to put down motions slagging the Minister for everything from the kitchen sink to matters that are genuinely within her remit.
That is a sexist remark and if the Minister were here, she would say so.
A truly scintillating intervention.
Too many people think life is like turning on the television – just zap the remote control and things happen. It is not like that when one is discussing provision of infrastructure for transport. There is no magic wand a Minister or Government can wave to suddenly make things right.
I agree with the last speaker that all Governments are responsible for the problem. For too long we have not invested in public transport. We were always just getting by and, as Deputy Higgins said, it worked. It is like the end of the tube of toothpaste, one can get by for a while getting the last little squeeze out of it but sooner or later it dries up. That is what has happened with public transport in recent years. All Governments over the years tweaked it one way or the other, trying to make do with what they had without putting serious investment into it.
In the past five years the penny dropped. Deputy Roche outlined the current investment. Last year it was £200 million and this year it will be £270 million whereas in 1996 and 1997 it was £6 million or £7 million per year. The investment in public transport provision at present is enormous. Of course, it should have happened years ago and it is a pity it did not. What we must do now, particularly if the economy is going off the boil, is guarantee that the last place we will start making expenditure cuts is on public transport. Now that we are geared to investing in transport infrastructure, we should maintain it, regardless of whether growth in the country is at 10% or 1%. That is the commitment we must make.
There is enormous investment in Dublin, such as in the M50 and the Dublin Port tunnel. Work on the tunnel started recently in my area. It will require enormous investment and in the short-term will cause headaches and heartaches. However, these developments are marvellous and will be beneficial.
Blaming the Minister for everything that has gone wrong is crazy. I regularly see this type of thing on Dublin City Council. Many of the Members on the Opposition benches talk a great deal about the need to do various things but when the council tries to provide a quality bus corridor or some other development, they support the local person or shopkeeper who objects to the QBC outside their premises. I am not saying we should steamroll over local opinion but we cannot be dominated by it. Members cannot come to the House and talk in macro terms while outside the House ally themselves with everybody who has a minor concern. It is a case of either looking at individual needs or at what is for the common good.
These people are not all on the Opposition benches. Some are in my party and one wonders if they will ever make up their minds about where they stand.
The Minister, Deputy O'Dea. Well done.
I am talking in a Dublin context and I will not embarrass the people I am talking about by mentioning their names. Most of them are on the Opposition benches.
Will the Deputy take photo opportunities on that?
I am not fingering the Deputy. Aer Lingus is another important issue. There are problems but I hope the staff will sort them out. I worked at the airport for about seven years. Aer Lingus and air travel generally has had its ups and downs. Let us hope the company will get its business together again. Most of the serious talking must be done at the airport. I do not enjoy seeing anybody forced out of their job. I hope negotiations take place at local level, that is where they must happen.
I was a semi-State employee for many years. Semi-State workers tended to compare themselves with other semi-State employees, whether it was the ESB, CIÉ, Aer Lingus or whatever, and assumed that wages, conditions and retirement provisions were much the same across the sector. I hope the people who will have to leave Aer Lingus can negotiate terms that are similar to those that workers in other such organisations would get.
Enormous change is taking place in the public sector. Many structural and regulatory changes as well as EU directives are being implemented under the Minister. She has moved much of that work forward. Life is changing and there have been many changes in the semi-State companies under her Department. Simply standing back and indulging in a mad slag is crazy. This motion is off the wall.
I will take this opportunity to repeat some of my remarks this morning when I complimented the Minister, during my contribution on the railway infrastructure Bill, on the announcements she made recently. There is an improved train service from Galway to Dublin. There are extra trains in the morning from Galway to Dublin and in the evening from Dublin to Galway. Great credit should be given to the Minister for that. Thanks to Bus Éireann there are buses running on the hour from west to east and from east to west. That is a welcome development. We were not used to such service.
I noticed that no reference was made to An Post when the Opposition was listing the failures of the Minister for Public Enterprise. I assume that the fact that it is not mentioned in the motion means that the Opposition is happy that the Minister is trying to protect the post office network.
What does the cousin say?
Most rural Deputies know that the post office, like the local school and the local church, has a unique position in the community. I notice that the Minister recently said she would like to see more business for the post office network and announced that ESB bills can be paid at post offices from next year, which is a welcome development. One of the recommendations of the Flynn report is that all necessary steps be taken by Government to maximise the amount of business channelled to the An Post network. It is a good and positive recommendation. Another suggestion was that the provision of a community based Internet access point be examined, with the capacity of the sub-post office network to offer banking facilities. I know many Deputies have spoken about this issue and proposed that banking facilities be made available when banks have pulled out of smaller towns and villages.
The Minister has been very positive regarding the minor issues that worry people. There was a furore recently when Eircom began to remove pay phones from smaller towns and villages, an issue that Deputies from western areas, including Galway, raised with the Minister. As a result of her intervention, Eircom gave a commitment not to remove any pay phone kiosks from areas that have only one kiosk. She deserves credit for this achievement.
Many of the failures listed in the motion do not exist. In relation to ESB power generation, the Minister and the ESB announced the upgrading of the line between Portumna and Athenry, which will be of great benefit to commercial and domestic consumers. The Minister has responded to the need to improve the electricity grid along the western seaboard, from County Donegal to County Kerry. She is aware that there is no point in designating the BMW region as having priority status if there is an inadequate electricity supply. Proper regional development includes improvements in the provision of electricity in the regions.
Galway Chamber of Commerce has welcomed the Minister's continued funding for Galway Airport and other smaller airports. The grants allocated for marketing have been very welcome. I hope they will continue. I am glad the Minister has shown a commitment to Shannon Airport, the main airport for the western seaboard and the mid-west. There is great potential for extra business in Shannon.
The Department of Public Enterprise is a challenging one. Deputies Dukes and Lowry can testify how challenging a Department it can be. Deputy O'Rourke has been an effective and competent Minister.
We are here once more to debate the successful policies of the Fianna Fáil-led Government.
Once more the Opposition is trying to dent the armour of the Minister for Public Enterprise, but it will fail again.
Deputy O'Flynn will make Deputy Ned O'Keeffe jealous.
The Opposition has failed on many occasions during the last four and a half years. Night after night, week after week, Opposition Deputies have come to the chamber bereft of policies and with badly thought-out and incomplete Private Members' Bills. They will not succeed in their attempts to lash one Minister after another. You cannot fool the public.
The Deputy should address his remarks through the Chair.
Certainly.
Mr. Higgins (Mayo): He should also keep his voice down, as he is registering on the Richter scale.
The Government's policies are working and have made Ireland a better place. The decisions taken during the last four and a half years have changed the country. When we go to the country next year, the people will show that they recognise what has been achieved and that they understand what needs to be done next. Fianna Fáil will be given a mandate to continue its work in running and leading the country. The Minister described Opposition Deputies correctly last night when she said they are puffed up, full of wind and without substance to their rhetoric. They look as if they are rudderless on a slow boat to China.
Rather than the slow train to Cork.
Let us see the Opposition's policies. As my colleagues have pointed out, Fine Gael's record of delivering on its promises is dismal. The Members opposite should stand up to tell us what they stand for, as I do not know. I certainly know that the people of Ireland do not know if the Opposition has policies. I wish to focus on the achievements of the Minister and her Department. Air passenger numbers have increased to 18 million, from 13.3 million in 1997.
Does the Deputy think the Minister paid for the flights?
A quarter of a million pounds has been spent by Aer Rianta on airports in the last four and a half years and Cork Airport will benefit from increased funds in the next few years. The great progress made is appreciated by the people of Cork and the staff of Aer Rianta under the excellent stewardship of Joe O'Connor. A new hotel has been built on the grounds of Cork Airport and I challenge the Opposition to stay in it and spend some money in Cork. A new urban rail service between Cork and Mallow has been proposed, with stops at Kilbarry, Rathpeacon, Blarney, Rathduff and Mallow. The service will greatly enhance public service in the Cork region. A strategic plan for the Cork area has been endorsed by Cork Corporation and Cork County Council. It is hoped the line between Cork and Midleton will reopen in the future. The Arrow rail service between Cork and Cobh is very successful. How much time do I have to give some more figures?
The Deputy has three and a half minutes.
The Deputy is almost finished.
Mr. Higgins (Mayo): He is running out of steam.
I wish to give some idea of the investment made. In 1997, £6.5 million was invested in public transport, a figure which rose to £7.82 million in 1998, £132 million in 1999, £199 million in 2000 and £271 million in 2001. Subventions to CIE grew from £105 million in 1997 to £159 million in 2001. When I came to this House in 1997 the buses on the streets of Cork were between 11 and 14 years old and choking the streets with carbon monoxide. They were not fit for people to sit in because of their age, but that is no longer the case. There are 80 new buses on the streets of Cork and 12 more will come on stream this year, as a result of the Government. I thank the Minister for Public Enterprise, as I have done on many occasions during the last four and a half years in this Chamber when the Opposition has challenged her during Private Members' Business. I recognise the work she has done.
Bus Éireann received delivery of 148 new buses in 2000, of which 59 were additional and 89 were replacements. Forty of these buses were deployed in the greater Dublin area. In 2001, 70 new buses will be delivered, 34 to Dublin and 36 to provincial cities – 20 to Cork, six to Limerick and five each to Galway and Waterford. I thought Cork was to receive 12 buses, but I realise that the correct figure is 20.
(Mayo): There is no need for a recount.
Frequency of departures has increased by 49% in Galway, 35% in Waterford, 21% in Limerick and 26% in Cork.
Moving on to rail safety, a new plan from 1999 to 2003 has been put in place following an independent review commissioned by the Minister for Public Enterprise. This involves a total investment of £430 million over five years, of which £350 million will be spent in the next two years. The money will be used to tackle both infrastructural and management aspects of rail safety. Deputy Jim Higgins and I are experts in rail safety and other matters relating to rail services. It is interesting to note the statistics, for example, that 89 miles of track was renewed in 1999, 84 miles in 2000 while 56 miles have been renewed this year, up to September. There has, therefore, been a total of 229 miles of track improvement, leading to greater rail safety, in the last three years. Expenditure on this programme amounted to £71 million in 1999, £100 million in 2000 and £114 million this year. I will return to the House at 8.30 p.m. to vote for a Minister who has served public enterprise well during the last four and a half years.
I wish to share my time with Deputies Flanagan, Cosgrave, Kenny, Seán Ryan and Joe Higgins.
I wish to support the motion for a number of reasons other than those outlined so far.
These reasons include the failure of the Minister to do anything positive about the new rail line to Navan, the hardship caused to individuals who apply to the ESB for a connection, the discontinuance last week of the freight train from Kingscourt to Navan and Drogheda and the Eircom flotation.
The Minister used clichés and levelled insults at Members on this side of the House during her performance last night. We must look at her record, at what she has achieved and at what she is known as in many sections of the public sector. She is known as "mammy" by the many people she meets. She tries to dictate the pace on the basis that she knows everything. We have only to look at the large number of resignations by chairmen and chief executive officers because they failed to convince her of the right way to do business. I give some credit to the former Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil, Deputy Albert Reynolds, because when he was elected Taoiseach a number of years ago he made a firm decision on his first day in office to sack the Minister, Deputy O'Rourke. He must have known something which has taken us and everyone in the country four years to find out, namely, that one cannot put a square peg in a round hole. The Minister has made more enemies than friends over the past three or four years. She criticised appointments made in this House, but she should outline to this House or to the public her role in the appointments she made to Westmeath VEC with her casting vote, which lost £1 million of taxpayers' money in investments abroad. It is only right and proper that she should explain her role in that.
The population of County Meath has grown since 1996 from 109,000 to 132,000. There has been a large increase in the number of young people buying houses in the only county in which they can afford them. Many of them expected a new rail track to be laid between Navan and Dublin. Funding is not provided in the national development plan for such a rail line. I condemn the Minister for her inaction in this area. She has failed the people of my constituency.
If people in County Meath apply to the ESB for a connection or to upgrade the electricity service for business purposes, there is a 12 to 16 week delay. However, the people in the ESB have said that if a person wants to pay the staff for the overtime on a Saturday and Sunday, he or she will have the service within three to four weeks. That is a two tier ESB service, like the two tier health service which the Government has allowed to develop over the past four and a half years.
Last week the Minister allowed the biggest single freight line in Ireland to close because she was not prepared to subsidise the freight being carried on the line from Kingscourt to Navan and from Navan to Drogheda. This means there will be 20 more trucks with 30 tonnes of weight on the roads every day. However, funding has not been provided to develop the road network in that area. That is another failure in County Meath. One week ago the Minister failed to keep a line open which had been open for 106 years.
Some 500,000 people lost thousands of pounds when Eircom was floated. They were misled and misinformed by the Minister and the Minister for Finance. I suspect those people will not forget the Minister for Public Enterprise on election day. Some 2,500 people will lose their jobs in Aer Lingus. Everyone tries to suggest that the attacks on 11 September were the cause of the problems in Aer Lingus. How long is it since there were problems in Aer Lingus? How long is it since the Minister failed to take any action to save those jobs? She failed dismally and many people in my constituency and across north Dublin will be out of work as a result of her failure to act fast enough.
I have four brief points in support of the motion tabled by Deputy Jim Higgins and supported by other Opposition parties. As regards Eircom, after the Minister was appointed, she put her own man, Mr. Ray MacSharry, a former Member of this House, in charge of it. Both she and Mr. MacSharry promised the sun, moon and stars to the investors, the public. She promised a bright and dynamic future for Eircom. However, within two years the company was sold at a knockdown price to Sir Anthony O'Reilly and a group of unknown foreign business interests. Up to 500,000 Irish shareholders were sold a pup and the person responsible is the Minister of State, Deputy Jacob's boss, Deputy O'Rourke.
As regards Luas, this debacle is well summed up by the phantom rail track outside the Department of the Taoiseach last weekend. This was added to only in terms of neck by the Minister's trip to London last year to be photographed beside another portion of rail track and a tramcar at a cost to the taxpayer of a sum in excess of £25,000. Yet while these photo opportunities are taking place, we are told it will be at least a further two and a half years before anybody travels on Luas in this city of gridlock.
It is remarkable that Iarnród Éireann is proceeding to dismantle the freight service throughout the country under the eyes of the Minister and the Minister of State. This is astonishing given that there is daily gridlock not only in this city but on our major road arteries. The Minister seems totally oblivious that it will cause more freight traffic to be moved from rail to road rather than the other way around. The Minister has not taken any action. The situation in Iarnród Éireann is exemplified by the fact that diesel locomotives in Sligo and other stations around the country are not turned off. They remain in a starter position with the engine purring for days and weeks. This wastes fuel and causes noise and disturbance. If this happened in Thomas The Tank Engine, children would not believe it. Yet the Minister and the Minister of State stand by and allow Iarnród Éireann to be mismanaged in this manner. I challenge the Minister and the Minister of State to refer me to one satisfied customer in the State. Is there a passenger or a commuter in the State who can say they are consistently happy with the rail service? The Minister and the Minister of State are not able to refer me to one such customer.
As regards the ESB, job development will not be sufficient in the regions unless and until the ESB is in a position to provide sufficient power for the west, north west and other regions. This has been known for years, yet the Minister, who represents a constituency in the Border, midlands and western region which is adjacent to my constituency, consistently refuses to take action to improve the situation. Meanwhile, Rhode power station in my constituency and on the borders of Offaly and Westmeath, which is the last remaining ESB power generating station in the midlands, has been closed for months because of a burst pipe. The 101 people who are engaged in the process of generating electricity cannot do so because the station is closed. Yet industrialists and enterprise experts tell us that the west, the north west and part of the north midlands are no go areas for industrial development because there is not sufficient power. The Minister and the Government are not working. They have squandered our boom in four and a half wasted years in office and it is time for them to go.
It was a sorry day that this House saw the appointment of Deputy O'Rourke as Minister for Public Enterprise. Since that day we have not witnessed her managing the ministerial brief. We have been treated to a performance of nothingness. As a result, the infrastructure of the State is not servicing consumer demand as it should be. These failures of this Minister will increase the negative effect of the current world economic downturn. Investors work out whether the countries in which they are prepared to invest have the capability to meet their demands for power and communications now and in the years ahead and deliver services when and where they are required at a competitive price in the world market. By not having the structures in place to adequately regulate these markets, the Minister has failed to give long-term assurance to employment creators that these basic services will be available at a competitive price at the level and scale they may require.
Her regime has not encouraged a spirit of true entrepreneurial culture among the Irish people or the management of the ESB. The board spent £3 million on preliminary preparation to bid for power supply companies in Poland but our great Minister does not have the energetic drive to permit the bid to progress. She also badly mishandled the privatisation of Eircom as a result of which 500,000 ordinary investors were stung. The Minister and the Cabinet delivered a bad sting to these investors, many of whom had borrowed to invest in Mary's sure fire bet. The experience of these many first time investors will cause long-term negative reaction to stock market investment. These are some highlights of Deputy O'Rourke's record of failure. If she were a car, she would fail her NCT.
I turn to the scandal of the lack of development of public transport nationally and in our cities in particular. Traffic congestion increases daily resulting in adverse affects on the nation's health and the environment. Ireland has significant unnecessary levels of exhaust emissions and fuel consumption. Those who commute by car are trapped in tin boxes and spend most of their time at a standstill in traffic jams. They fume as their blood pressure increases. The Minister for Public Enterprise is responsible for this mess. Had she used the Government's past four years in power to put an adequate number of buses on the road, bring forward the Luas project while ensuring capacity in our rail network was confronted and funded, this terrible traffic chaos would not exist. The Minister presided over inaction. It is as if she believes if one does nothing, one does nothing wrong.
Ministers are in office to guide and direct. The Aer Lingus disaster will always be to the Minister's shame. A total of 2,026 posts are to be sacrificed because she was not up to the job. FLS Aerospace located at Dublin Airport announced earlier it is to let go another 200 staff. This would not have happened if the Minister listened to the company's employees. They campaigned to have the Sikorsky helicopter contract placed with the company. The Minister for Defence should be approached by the Minister for Public Enterprise and requested to award the contract to FLS. It would save these jobs and would ensure the European maintenance contract for the company and create more jobs. Pure neglect has led to a failure to ask the Taoiseach to approach the Minister for Defence to award this contract to FLS, thus ensuring the jobs would be saved and more created.
Everywhere the Minister turns, her failures are there to haunt her. Unfortunately for those who will lose their jobs at Aer Lingus and FLS she has done nothing to ease the pain. What has she done to protect the great national flag carrier? Once a symbol of the nation, Aer Lingus is faced with scratching about to sell off its assets while the Minister looks on. One hundred and fifty years ago the people were sacrificed by a Government which did not care and members of that Government who cared were too inept to intervene to save the situation. Our Government has proved not to be better than that foreign one.
When the Taoiseach realised the Minister for Public Enterprise was not up to the job of ensuring firm foundations for the long-term viability of the national airline did he reshuffle his Cabinet and appoint a positive fresh force to replace this tired and fading Minister?
I have listened with interest to the contributions to the debate over the past two evenings and it has degenerated into a farce, principally because of the political slanging match that emanated from the Government benches. I listened with incredulity to the Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science, Deputy O'Dea, last night who lamented that I, as Minister for Tourism and Trade, appointed Mr. Tony Brassil to an advisory body. I appointed him to an advisory council in a voluntary capacity dealing with issues relevant to tourism and I was very happy with the advice and practical common sense approach of Mr. Brassil. I make no apology to Deputy O'Dea for that temporary appointment.
The television news this evening reported on Rudy Giuliani welcoming the first passengers to arrive in New York by Concorde for some time. He advised them that he wanted them to spend money in New York. Deputy O'Flynn has taken a leaf from his book.
He was advising people to travel to Cork, stay in the Great Southern Hotel and spend money.
The portfolio given to the Minister for Public Enterprise by the Taoiseach is the problem because anyone who is appointed to a ministry is faced with an avalanche of personnel and material on his or her first day in office, as members of the Labour Party will be aware. The brief of the Minister and the Department is too wide to be managed effectively. Spreading one's energies over too large an area results in inconsistency, incompetence and mismanagement. All the areas under Deputy O'Rourke's guidance are minefields and have been for many years.
The moneys to drive the national development plan have only been provided over the past five years and, therefore, there is no point in comparing what was spent between 1991 and 1996 with what has been spent since then because different sets of values and income limits apply. The Minister for Public Enterprise has dismally failed to live up to implementing any one of a number of clear priorities. When Deputy John Bruton became Taoiseach he gave us many good pieces of advice but one stuck with me. He told us to focus on a number of small priorities and pursue them, otherwise we would get buried in the trenches of the Department.
The Minister for Public Enterprise or anyone supporting her cannot come into the House and say she is a shining example of good political management of a Department covering various aspects of public transport that Europe can follow. Those of us who live along the western rail line have been told money is running out to finish the line between Munulla and Westport and Ballina. Gas, which has been lying under the Atlantic for millions of years, was found off the west coast and Belmullet, the closest town on land, was bypassed when it was brought ashore. People have been forced to emigrate from the area for generations under all Governments. Many of them have worked on gas pipelines throughout the world but I bet towns in the midlands will be provided with gas spurs.
The Government is tired, jaded, fatigued and is suffering from incompetence and mismanagement. The Government train will reach a political station before next May and it will be sent screaming into political oblivion because this train, if no other, is surely headed for the buffers.
Yesterday I had reason to outline the litany of job losses, totalling 6,000, that have gripped the north Dublin region over the past 12 months. This is the equivalent of the population of many large towns in Ireland. This is the extent of the misery and hardship handed out to the workers and their families in the region.
Little did I realise that today I would be able to add another 150 job losses which will take place between November and next March due to the restructuring plan at FLS. I am concerned that this announcement is the tip of the iceberg for this company which employs 1,500 skilled workers. I am concerned for the future employment prospects, given that the parent company has stated there will be no further investment and that FLS will have to paddle its own canoe.
In the light of this development I am more convinced than ever that the proposed purchase by the Government of helicopters for the Air Corps provides a unique opportunity for FLS to diversify its core business on the basis of a successful bid by Sikorsky, including a number of offset deals, thus preserving jobs, particularly in the summer. The Government's line to date has been that job losses have been outside its control, but the helicopter contract provides it with a prime opportunity to show its support for employment in north Dublin.
The viability plan drawn up by Aer Lingus envisages funding for voluntary redundancies and investment of £50 million. However, the State which owns 90% of the shares in the company has come up with nothing. This is scandalous. The Government has hidden behind the Commission's guidelines because it suited its policy. Having received professional advice, I am of the opinion that, if the will existed, the State could argue it is acting as a market economy investor and invest funds in Aer Lingus for which it can expect a reasonable return. It is arguable that such an approach would not fall foul of the state aid provisions. As this matter is in the public domain and in the light of its guidelines on state aid, the Commission may seek to challenge the State's right to make such an investment. However, the contemporaneous investment on similar terms by a private investor bolsters the State's position and assists any defence it may offer in the event of a court case.
I am pleased that negotiations have commenced between the trade unions and the company. However, two important components for a successful outcome are missing, namely, a commitment by the State to invest in the company and to ensure there are no involuntary redundancies. It is not too late for the Government to take the gloves off as far as Brussels is concerned and secure the future of Aer Lingus. However, given the Minister's comments in the House, I fear that the Government has sold out Aer Lingus – our national airline – and its workforce.
The facts are clear. These are exceptional times in the aviation industry. The Government can invest in Aer Lingus under the market investor principle if it so chooses. If the Government does not act now, it could be responsible for the demise of Aer Lingus. It would also be responsible for the consequences of such a development for people, the economy and the workforce who in recent years built up the company. The facts show how successful they have been prior to 11 September.
The Government has failed Aer Lingus and the workers in the region. It would be preferable if the Minister resigned in order that the so-called "northside Taoiseach" could do a proper job for the people of the region.
(Dublin West): The motion before the House calls on the Minister for Public Enterprise to be removed from office. I agree with the proposal, but not because there is a qualitative difference in performance or ideology between the Minister and the Government – the Government should go the same way as the Minister.
Deputy O'Rourke is conferred with the title of Minister for Public Enterprise. However, there has been no more misconstrued or misnamed Minister in recent times. In the past four and a half years the Minister has been antipathetic to public enterprise. Above all she has been a Minister for privatisation of valuable public services which properly belong to the people and which should be maintained and developed in public ownership for the benefit of their workers and the people. The raft of staggering job losses in multinational corporations announced in recent weeks should give us pause for thought as far as the privatisation bandwagon is concerned. The Government will claim to have little control over multinational corporations. Decisions made in far flung capitals determine the future, or lack of it, of thousands of Irish workers. However, our indigenous publicly-owned companies are being handed over to these multinational organisations to further reduce the control over the numbers of people at work in this country.
The Minister stands condemned for her management of the difficulties in Aer Lingus alone. It is a travesty that the majority of the board of Aer Lingus, a premier publicly-owned company – the national airline – should, at the behest of the Government, be demanding the axing of over 2,000 jobs and refusing to have the State invest in the company it owns. This is being done on the basis of the threadbare excuse that the European Union opposes such investment.
The atrocities of 11 September have been cynically used time and again to cover a multitude. That is certainly the case as regards Aer Lingus. It is clear that Aer Lingus was going to face difficulties, given the foot and mouth disease crisis earlier this year and the events of 11 September. However, those difficulties are temporary. Last year the company made a profit of £60 million. It could be turned around and put on a firm footing without shedding any jobs, if the will existed. However, far from a will to invest in Aer Lingus, those at the most senior levels of the Department of Public Enterprise wish to privatise the company. It is outrageous that senior civil servants are dictating the State's privatisation programme with a hapless Minister going along helplessly in their wake. This is a dire situation for which Aer Lingus workers and the community in north Dublin will pay a heavy price if the Government is not stopped. Workers made redundant must be guaranteed pension and termination entitlements well above what is being suggested.
I could go through many other issues in regard to privatisation if I had time. Handing over the Irish National Petroleum Corporation, the only such facility in this State, to a multinational company based in America with disastrous health and safety and environmental records, is also a crime for which this Minister should be dismissed.
I have had the opportunity to observe the performance and the work of the Minister, Deputy O'Rourke, from a very close vantage point over the past four and a half years. The only word that comes to mind to describe the work of that lady—
—is "superb". She has presided over a huge Department dealing with transport, energy and communications. Her work rate and her resolve in seeking and securing massive amounts of funding to invest in those sectors will be the legacy she leaves to Ireland. She has laid the foundations for a considerable amount of state of the art infrastructure and time will honour her for that performance.
I will briefly address the handful of areas under my control. I have had the opportunity to talk about the nuclear and Sellafield issues on three or four occasions since we returned from the summer recess in this and in the other House so I will not repeat myself. I reiterate the Government's dismay and anger at the British Government's decision to give the go ahead to the MOX plant. We have consistently opposed this plant and the British Government is in no doubt as to the depth of opposition in Ireland to it and to the Sellafield operations. There is no country on this planet that is more anti-nuclear than this one, no Government more anti-nuclear than this one and no people more anti-nuclear than the Irish people. That has been conveyed throughout the world in recent years. A solid consensus has been established.
The Government is determined to prevent the MOX plant from starting. The legal actions upon which we have embarked under the OSPAR convention, on the law of the sea and under European law, if necessary, are an indication of our commitment to this goal. We have exhausted the diplomatic route in stopping the MOX plant and are now pursuing the legal route, a route which no previous Government has ever taken. The legal case being taken is not a reaction to a recent announcement by the British Government with which we do not agree. Preparatory legal and other work done over a long period has left us in a state of preparedness to proceed at the appropriate time with these cases. I know everyone here hopes we are successful in that.
I am not the adversarial type but I sat here the other night and was lectured by Deputy Howlin who stuck his chest out and told us how much better he managed things, how he managed being a senior Minister and how he did a much better job in the context of the then ministerial committee. All I will say, and I do not want to go into the "godmatic" mode of Deputy Howlin as it is certainly not my style—
—is that I will stack my record against the good Deputy's anytime. It is all on record, the sustained productive work—
I will take the Minister of State on.
—that is being done on this.
I will even go on radio and debate it.
On the sustainable energy side, the most outstanding achievement has been the publication of the Green Paper on Sustainable Energy which I published in 1999. This was a major energy policy objective of the programme for Government and is the energy sector response to our obligations under the Kyoto Protocol.
On the renewable side, the strategy group anticipated by the Green Paper has reported and I am in the process of delivering on the many recommendations of that group. That will ensure that come 2005, 20% of our electricity requirements will be produced via the renewable energy route, mainly wind energy.
Will the Minister of State conclude?
I am satisfied, therefore, that substantial progress has been made in recent years to ensure that the energy sector plays its full role in meeting its obligations in the climate change field. Have I run out of time?
(Mayo): This motion was not flippantly conceived. It was not put on the Order Paper out of political opportunism. It is not on the Order Paper to get at the Minister personally. It is on the Order Paper because this country, its economy and its people are, unfortunately, stuck with the Minister, Deputy O'Rourke, who as Minister for Public Enterprise is pitifully incompetent and incapable of managing the most crucial and pivotal Department in the whole State structure.
This motion is on the Order Paper because never before has this country been foisted with a Minister, in charge of such a range of vital State utilities and who has failed miserably to meet the challenge or the opportunities of our State company sector and who has been an absolute and total flop. It is on the Order Paper because the Minister is the people's shareholder on each of the centrally important semi-State companies. In each and every case she has let the people down, she has let the country down and she has let the companies down. It is on the Order Paper because the Minister has had four years and four months in office. For four years and four months she has talked the talk, pumping out torrents of meaningless verbiage and balderdash, posing for photographs, engaging in a range of ritual well choreographed public relations stunts but failing hopelessly to manage her Department, its resources or the plethora of companies under her direct command.
The Opposition has put down this motion because the time has come to call a spade a spade, to call a halt and to end this charade. We have put down this motion because the Department the Minister mismanages and the State enterprises she has neglected and mismanaged are the fulcrum of the economy. As has been said repeatedly by those on this side of the House, this Minister for Public Enterprise must go.
That the Labour Party and the Green Party have agreed to co-sponsor this motion with Fine Gael speaks for itself. It is an indication of not just political cross-party unity on this issue but of the public realisation of just how seriously the semi-State sector has fallen to shreds under the baton of this Minister.
The motion focuses on 15 areas of responsibility where the Minister has abjectly failed to measure up. The Minister's disastrous fumbling with the affairs of Aer Lingus not just in the past five weeks but right from the very start of her assuming office has been a glaring example of her indecisiveness and lack of vision. Aer Lingus was in good shape when the rainbow left office. It was making a substantial profit and its future in continued state ownership looked bright. Suddenly came the announcement that the Minister wanted to put the airline up for sale. She published the Aer Lingus Bill and piloted it through the Seanad. She splurged taxpayer's money on needless accountancy services for advice and publicity, including £480,709 to Irish International Group, £66,360 to Drury Communications, £62,500 to William Fry Solicitors, £50,000 to Mason Hayes and Curran for more legal advice and as yet unspecified amounts to Schroder Solomon Smith Barney and AIB Capital Markets, to Computer Shares, to Deloitte & Touche and to the Merrill Corporation.
Suddenly the IPO was grounded and we awoke early last summer to the news that the Minister had changed her mind. The IPO was being abandoned and the Minister was going to flog the national airline on the open market by way of a trade sale. She is playing with the fortunes of our proud national carrier as if it were a rag doll at a jumble sale.
In the past five weeks, the Minister changed tack once again. The airline's work force is now to be cut by 35% – 2,026 workers are to be made redundant. A derisory redundancy package of four weeks pay for each year of service has been put on offer. The offer to the workers is theoretically voluntary. However, if they do not accept the deal by 30 November, the redundancies will be forced on them. The trade unions rightly believe that they will not accept it. It will then be gun-to-the-head stuff.
The Government has taken a completely over- the-top approach to the issue. One has to demand an answer to the obvious question as to how our national airline which was making a group profit of £60 million two years ago is now being publicly butchered and humiliated. Is it not patently obvious that the Aer Lingus difficulties are solvable? Aviation, by its very nature, is cyclical and volatile. It is subject to market swings and economic fluctuations. In the case of Aer Lingus, it has been hit by two successive body blows in quick succession – the foot and mouth crisis earlier this year which devastated the 1.5 million passenger North American market and the 11 September catastrophe. However, people will have to fly again and they will when confidence returns. Aviation will take off again, but the Government seems hell bent on ensuring that when this happens Aer Lingus will only be a debilitated shadow of its former self.
The failure of the Government to exploit the exceptional circumstances provisions of the EU directive leads one to believe that the 11 September tragedy is a convenient smokescreen for a covert Government strategy already in place to get rid of our national airline. The people have a special affinity and affection for Aer Lingus. They regard it as part of what we are. There will be a dear political price to be paid by the Government for what it has done or is intent on doing to a very successful national institution.
Apart from the IPO of Aer Lingus being unnecessary and undesirable, it is also tantamount to selling the national silver. It was never on. The prospect of another IPO, in this case of the national airline, has been irreparably damaged by the debacle of the Eircom flotation. As has been said time and again in this House, the Minister is personally culpable for the Eircom shambles. When one looks at the fees paid for consultancy and legal advice, for a fiasco that left so many investors financially bruised and wounded, one has to ask how such a manifestly incompetent and incapable Minister was ever appointed to such a key ministry. Consultancy money – taxpayer's money – was thrown around like confetti. Some £58.42 million went to Merill Lynch International and AIB Capital Markets. This joint venture by the two companies is described in grandiose terms as the "Roadshow Co-Ordinator"– some sorry roadshow.
It was a quare roadshow last weekend.
(Mayo): Skadden Arps Slate Meagher and Flom was paid £1.25 million to provide international counsel for the Minister – some counsel. Irish International Group was in charge of advertising and paid a staggering £3.214 million for its efforts. A further £2.843 million was paid to Citigate Dewe Rogerson for marketing and market research. The receiving agent for the IPO was Computershare Services which was paid £1.408 million for its troubles. Browne Internet was the secure printer and was paid £2.773 million. An Post was paid £3.052 million while PWC was paid £157,000. It cost £74,000 for the registration of clients. A variety of other costs brought the total cost to the taxpayer for the Eircom flotation to a whopping £73.82 million. For what?
After all the glamour, extravagant advice, advertising, photo calls and champagne, the promises, hopes and expectations of small first-time investors seduced into believing there was a crock of gold at the end of the Minister's rainbow, some 500,000 mainly small investors have been left with holes burned in their pockets having seen their hard-earned money squandered. They feel robbed, duped and are angry. They may have gone quiet for the moment, but they are waiting in the long grass for the Minister and her colleagues and will have their revenge when the election is called. To revert again to the Aer Lingus IPO, or any IPO, who in their right mind would buy even a ten pence share from any enterprise promoted by the Minister for Public Enterprise?
When the Minister was appointed on 26 June 1997, the Luas light rail project was planned and the finance secure from Europe and the Exchequer. It was ready to roll. Not content to inherit a sound scheme from the rainbow Government, the Minister went back to the drawing board, took out a crayon and started the whole process all over again. Today, in November 2001, all we have is a few dug-up streets, lots of cynical, reassuring expensive front page advertising telling us that Luas is just around the corner, or the ridiculous weekend stunt with the leather-clad Minister prancing around like an Athlone version of Tina Turner.
The Government states that Luas will be completed in 2003. It might well be constructed by 2003, but between testing, which will take 18 months, and commissioning, which will take another six months, it will be at least 2005 before it transports a single passenger. By then, the Minister's colleagues will be perched along the Opposition benches and I hope she herself will be perched high up on the back benches where she can do no further harm.
All the while, the citizenry of Dublin bring 100,000 new cars onto the streets of Dublin each year, thereby confirming its status as the most traffic-chaotic, disorganised capital city in Europe. The Minister's ineptitude, indecisiveness, failure to plan and act have led to a situation where we have traffic jams where there never were traffic jams before. Last night she trotted out figures for new buses and new DART carriages, but that is cold comfort to the car-trapped population caught every morning and evening in the country's endless queues because she has failed to deliver an efficient and reliable public transport system.
No Minister for Public Enterprise was ever endowed with such resources both from State and EU funds in order to modernise our transport infrastructure, yet after four years and four months at the helm we have been left with the most ragged, decrepit and sub-standard rail service in Europe. Some of the trains on our main lines were commissioned as far back as 1965, 36 years ago. Our trains are almost always late and I do not mean by the 15 minutes to which Deputy Sargent referred last night. It takes three years to commission newly-ordered rolling stock. The carriages ordered recently will not find their way onto the rail tracks of the country until 2004 and 2005. In the meantime passengers will be herded like cattle, left standing for long journeys in the aisles and between carriages, paying up to £30 for a seat. Instead of putting resources into a fast-track, reliable and comfortable rail system, shifting huge volumes of people and freight from road to rail, the Minister continues to preside over a company which is about to cut its freight staff from 600 to 300. We have glaring market opportunities, a huge, well-disposed traffic paralysed population, the potential to turn CIÉ and its subsidiary companies from loss-makers to profit-making enterprises and the Minister for Public Enterprise cannot see her way through the fog, showing neither the will nor the vision to make this a reality.
We have a great propensity in this country for signing up to international protocols while blandly ignoring the obligations which they entail. We signed up to the Kyoto Protocol and agreed to limit greenhouse emissions to 13% above 1990 levels, but what has happened? Instead of a concerted drive to meet this modest target, Ireland's greenhouse emissions are 20% above target and the latest ESRI report projects a rise of 27% by 2010. This is a disgrace for a country which has the greatest potential in terms of wind and wave power in Europe, yet the Minister and her Minister of State content themselves by uttering pious platitudes.
I listened to the Minister's defence last night. It was truly pathetic. There was no constructive rebuttal of the points made by the Opposition. Her performance was a kind of poor quality throw-back to "Hall's Pictorial Weekly" of 30 years ago. It was Ballymagash all over again. One would have expected somewhat better. Unable to fill her 30 minute slot with anything of substance she called in the services of the late Jim Kemmy's Limerick friend – Mighty Mouse from Limerick himself – little wee Willie Winkle. Knockabout comedy is all right when one is entertaining constituents in Southill, but this is a different kettle of fish. This is about the incompetence of a Minister who is an unmitigated disaster, does not care or simply does not realise her own inadequacy. Last night I listened to her "snap, crackle and pop" comment and it certainly confirmed what we all suspected, that the Minister has lost it. Henceforth, she should devote herself to exploiting her kindergarten talents and mentality by writing fairly tales and nursery rhymes. Listening to the Minister's pathetic speech yesterday, I could reach only one conclusion, it is no wonder we are where we are. The Minister simply has to go.
Amendment put.
Tá
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Ahern, Dermot.Ahern, Michael.Ahern, Noel.Andrews, David.Ardagh, Seán.Aylward, Liam.Blaney, Harry.Brady, Johnny.Brady, Martin.Brennan, Matt.Brennan, Séamus.Briscoe, Ben.Browne, John (Wexford).Byrne, Hugh.Callely, Ivor.Carey, Pat.Collins, Michael.Cooper-Flynn, Beverley.Coughlan, Mary.Cowen, Brian.Cullen, Martin.Daly, Brendan.Davern, Noel.de Valera, Síle.Dennehy, John.Doherty, Seán.Ellis, John.Fahey, Frank.Fleming, Seán.Flood, Chris.Foley, Denis.Fox, Mildred.Gildea, Thomas.Hanafin, Mary.Harney, Mary.Haughey, Seán.Healy-Rae, Jackie.Jacob, Joe.Keaveney, Cecilia.
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Kelleher, Billy.Kenneally, Brendan.Killeen, Tony.Kirk, Séamus.Kitt, Michael P.Kitt, Tom.Lawlor, Liam.Lenihan, Brian.Lenihan, Conor.McCreevy, Charlie.McGennis, Marian.McGuinness, John J.Martin, Micheál.Moffatt, Thomas.Molloy, Robert.Moloney, John.Moynihan, Donal.Moynihan, Michael.Ó Cuív, Éamon.O'Dea, Willie.O'Donnell, Liz.O'Flynn, Noel.O'Hanlon, Rory.O'Keeffe, Batt.O'Keeffe, Ned.O'Kennedy, Michael.O'Rourke, Mary.Power, Seán.Roche, Dick.Ryan, Eoin.Smith, Brendan.Smith, Michael.Treacy, Noel.Wade, Eddie.Wallace, Dan.Wallace, Mary.Walsh, Joe.Woods, Michael.Wright, G. V.
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Níl
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Barnes, Monica.Barrett, Seán.Bell, Michael.Belton, Louis J.Boylan, Andrew.Bradford, Paul.Broughan, Thomas P.Browne, John (Carlow-Kilkenny).Bruton, Richard.Burke, Liam.Burke, Ulick.Carey, Donal.Clune, Deirdre.Connaughton, Paul.Cosgrave, Michael.Crawford, Seymour.Creed, Michael.Currie, Austin.D'Arcy, Michael.De Rossa, Proinsias.Deasy, Austin.Deenihan, Jimmy.Dukes, Alan.Durkan, Bernard.Enright, Thomas.Farrelly, John.Finucane, Michael.Fitzgerald, Frances.Flanagan, Charles.Gilmore, Éamon.Gormley, John.Hayes, Brian.Hayes, Tom.Healy, Seamus.Higgins, Jim.Higgins, Joe.Higgins, Michael.
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Hogan, Philip.Howlin, Brendan.Kenny, Enda.Lowry, Michael.McCormack, Pádraic.McDowell, Derek.McGahon, Brendan.McGinley, Dinny.McGrath, Paul.McManus, Liz.Mitchell, Gay.Mitchell, Jim.Mitchell, Olivia.Moynihan-Cronin, Breeda.Naughten, Denis.Neville, Dan.Noonan, Michael.O'Keeffe, Jim.O'Shea, Brian.O'Sullivan, Jan.Penrose, William.Perry, John.Quinn, Ruairí.Rabbitte, Pat.Reynolds, Gerard.Ring, Michael.Ryan, Seán.Sargent, Trevor.Shatter, Alan.Sheehan, Patrick.Shortall, Róisín.Spring, Dick.Stagg, Emmet.Stanton, David.Timmins, Billy.Upton, Mary.Wall, Jack.
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Tellers: Tá, Deputies S. Brennan and Power; Níl, Deputies Bradford and Stagg.
Amendment declared carried.
Question put: "That the motion, as amended, be agreed to."
Tá
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Ahern, Dermot.Ahern, Michael.Ahern, Noel.Andrews, David.Ardagh, Seán.Aylward, Liam.Blaney, Harry.Brady, Johnny.Brady, Martin.Brennan, Matt.Brennan, Séamus.Briscoe, Ben.Browne, John (Wexford).Byrne, Hugh.Callely, Ivor.Carey, Pat.Collins, Michael.Cooper-Flynn, Beverley.Coughlan, Mary.Cowen, Brian.Cullen, Martin.Daly, Brendan.Davern, Noel.de Valera, Síle.Dennehy, John.Doherty, Seán.Ellis, John.Fahey, Frank.Fleming, Seán.Flood, Chris.Foley, Denis.Fox, Mildred.Gildea, Thomas.Hanafin, Mary.Harney, Mary.Haughey, Seán.Healy-Rae, Jackie.Jacob, Joe.Keaveney, Cecilia.
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Kelleher, Billy.Kenneally, Brendan.Killeen, Tony.Kirk, Séamus.Kitt, Michael P.Kitt, Tom.Lawlor, Liam.Lenihan, Brian.Lenihan, Conor.McCreevy, Charlie.McGennis, Marian.McGuinness, John J.Martin, Micheál.Moffatt, Thomas.Molloy, Robert.Moloney, John.Moynihan, Donal.Moynihan, Michael.Ó Cuív, Éamon.O'Dea, Willie.O'Donnell, Liz.O'Flynn, Noel.O'Hanlon, Rory.O'Keeffe, Batt.O'Keeffe, Ned.O'Kennedy, Michael.O'Rourke, Mary.Power, Seán.Roche, Dick.Ryan, Eoin.Smith, Brendan.Smith, Michael.Treacy, Noel.Wade, Eddie.Wallace, Dan.Wallace, Mary.Walsh, Joe.Woods, Michael.Wright, G.V.
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Níl
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Barnes, Monica.Barrett, Seán.Belton, Louis J.Boylan, Andrew.Bradford, Paul.Broughan, Thomas P.Browne, John (Carlow-Kilkenny).Bruton, Richard.Burke, Ulick.Carey, Donal.Clune, Deirdre.Connaughton, Paul.Cosgrave, Michael.Crawford, Seymour.Creed, Michael.Currie, Austin.De Rossa, Proinsias.Deasy, Austin.Deenihan, Jimmy.Dukes, Alan.Durkan, Bernard.Enright, Thomas.Farrelly, John.Finucane, Michael.Fitzgerald, Frances.Flanagan, Charles.Gilmore, Éamon.Hayes, Brian.Hayes, Tom.Healy, Seamus.Higgins, Jim.
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Higgins, Michael.Hogan, Philip.Howlin, Brendan.Kenny, Enda.McCormack, Pádraic.McDowell, Derek.McGahon, Brendan.McGinley, Dinny.McGrath, Paul.McManus, Liz.Mitchell, Jim.Mitchell, Olivia.Moynihan-Cronin, Breeda.Neville, Dan.Noonan, Michael.O'Keeffe, Jim.O'Shea, Brian.O'Sullivan, Jan.Penrose, William.Perry, John.Rabbitte, Pat.Reynolds, Gerard.Ring, Michael.Ryan, Seán.Shatter, Alan.Sheehan, Patrick.Shortall, Róisín.Stagg, Emmet.Stanton, David.Timmins, Billy.Upton, Mary.Wall, Jack.
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Tellers: Tá, Deputies S. Brennan and Power; Níl, Deputies Bradford and Stagg.
Question declared carried.
