Seanad report: The leader of the House, Ms O'Rourke spoke of contacts with her office by that of the Minister for Transport and said that she regarded the interchanges as "quite undesirable".
She was explaining why she had refused to have the Aer Rianta Bill taken in the House at 10 p.m. last night and to have its passage completed within an hour today.
This sort of thing had been done before and it had not worked out, she added. "I promised myself after that that we would not be at this late night caper". Stating that she wished to be frank, Ms O'Rourke said that massive spinning was going on at present. Minister Brennan had never contacted her about the Bill.
"Yes, his office was in contact with my office and I would regard those interchanges as quite undesirable". She had met with the Taoiseach and he had agreed that it would be quite ridiculous to have the Bill rushed through. Announcing that the contentious measure would be taken next week, she said that she thought it was a mark of their own sense of authority that they would not allow legislation to be just stamped through. She would not allow that to happen on her watch.
Mr Brian Hayes, Fine Gael leader in the House, congratulated Ms O'Rourke for standing up to the bullying of the Minister for Transport who had shown "unbelievable neck, cheek and arrogance in thinking that a Bill of this magnitude" could be rubber-stamped through within 24 hours. Mr Hayes said that Mr Brennan should consider his position because he had gone above all their heads in dealing with this issue.
Mr Joe O'Toole (Ind) said that while the leader of the House had done her absolute best and had defended the integrity of the Seanad, the reality was that they had ended up, following the intervention of the Taoiseach, debating a Bill which they could not change. "I just want to say, fair play to Michael O'Leary, his ads have worked. Whatever impact he had on the Government, it has conceded simply so that it can get free rides into Shannon Airport by Ryanair. That is the outcome of this".
Mr Brendan Ryan (Lab) said that the Minister had been reported in The Irish Times as suggesting that Cork and Shannon would, in their present position, be perpetually coming to Dublin asking for money. "I don't believe that infrastructural investment in the regions should be confused with some sort of begging bowl".
One way of forcing the British Government to establish an inquiry into the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings would be to mount a civil action in the European Court of Human Rights, Mr John Minihan (PD) said. Commending the Irish Government for its efforts made so far to secure the co-operation of its British counterpart in trying to uncover who had been responsible for the bombings, Mr Minihan said that the time had come to redouble those efforts.
Alternatively, a civil suit in Britain or Northern Ireland by the surviving victims or their relatives might succeed in goading the British into action. However, should the latter course be followed, it would be necessary for the Irish Government to indemnify those taking the action in terms of the legal costs.