Senator Aisling Dolan

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the report from the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions. I thank the committee for the report and congratulate it on the speed of its work. The report is comprehensive and all of us agree it is necessary.

“East Coast Bakery will bring 100 new jobs to the Donore Road Business Park in Drogheda providing a huge boost to the local area” says Fergus O’Dowd, Fine Gael TD for Louth.

“CSO data has confirmed that 459 deaths by suicide were registered in 2014, compared to 475 in 2013. A reduction of any kind is to be welcomed, but very cautiously”, says Dan Neville, founder of the Irish Association of Suicidology, Fine Gael Party Chairperson and TD for Limerick.

Fine Gael TD for Cavan/Monaghan, Sean Conlan has welcomed the launch of a €320 million investment package for the Border, Midland and Western Region backed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Fine Gael TD for Wexford and Chairman of the Oireachtas Finance Committee, Liam Twomey, said today (Friday) the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, is to begin a public consultation on the tax barriers facing small business and entrepreneurs. The tax treatment of small businesses and the self-employed isone of the key concerns highlighted during Fine Gael’s Standing up for Small Business campaign.

Fine Gael TD for Louth, Peter Fitzpatrick, has welcomed the European Commission’s formal approval for Ireland's €2 billion Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, under the revised Common Agriculture Policy (CAP).

Dara Murphy, Minister for European Affairs and Fine Gael TD for Cork North Central, has welcomed today’s decision by An Bord Pleanala to grant planning permission to the Port of Cork, for a new container facility near the Ringaskiddy ferry terminal and an extension to the deep-water berth.

Speaking on the sale of Aer Lingus to IAG, Fine Gael TD for Cavan/Monaghan, Joe O’Reilly outlined to the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Paschal Donohoe, his concern for the many people who commute to work in Dublin Airport.

“Sinn Féin is effectively lying to the people of Carlow with its two faced stance on the sugar beet industry; supporting it here at home and all the while, undermining it in Europe,” says Fine Gael TD for Carlow-Kilkenny, Pat Deering.

Aer Lingus has a long history and a close association with the State. For 70 of the nearly 80 years of its existence, it was State owned and although a majority stake in the airline was privatised some nine years ago, it still has a special place in the hearts of the Irish people.