In all my time in politics I probably only ever saw the anger of the Donegal people as acute as I have seen it in recent days and that was with regard to the handling of defective blocks in the county. There is probably a thread that runs through this. The Minister who refused to come to our county and meet homeowners with defective blocks was the Minister for housing at the time, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, who is now the Minister for Transport who signed the contract that ended the midday flights from Donegal to Dublin for the next four years, affecting cancer patients across the county. People travelled to Dublin yesterday and told their testimony. They explained that they would not be here today if it were not for those midday flights. They literally would not have been able to get to Dublin in time to have life-saving treatment. The Government was told time and again in the lead up to this the importance of these flights. It has entered into a contract with the airline which will end these flights. I struggle to find words in parliamentary language to explain the frustration, anger and hurt of the people of Donegal in terms of what has happened. It is best shown in terms of what has happened over the last number of days when we found out by accident that the Government had actually entered into this contract, which it has known about since October last year and which meant that the afternoon flights from Dublin and Donegal would end. When we heard this, people from across the county, from community groups, sporting organisations and State bodies to musicians and actors, pulled together and explained that this is unworkable. They are demanding that Donegal be no longer the forgotten country and that we hold on to what we have. The best example of that has been Majella O'Donnell, Daniel O'Donnell's partner, who spoke on "The Late Late Show" about the importance of these flights. The Minister of State and his Government have done a dirty deed. The Government has seriously betrayed the people of Donegal. The contract was executed just 24 hours before the Government knew of a delegation representing 500 cancer patients who currently use the flight and 15,000 people who signed a petition in a matter of days. That is exactly how people feel. They feel hurt and betrayed. However, we also need to feel a bit of hope that this life-saving service can be restored. We need a Government that is working not against the people of Donegal but with them and with the group, the advocates and the cancer flights and services group that travelled up here. One of its members is back in Dublin today after being up here in a deputation yesterday. This person is accompanying a cancer patient in a hospital here in Dublin who is getting life-saving treatment. The consultant, a very senior person in that hospital, had a conversation with a patient today in which he said he saw this issue on the news yesterday and that if it goes ahead, it will be unworkable, and he had no problem being quoted on that. Everybody knows that what the Government has entered into is unworkable. It is not fair to the people of Donegal, tourism, businesses, commuters and it is a disaster for people who rely on this service. Between 10% and 15% of the 44,000 passengers are healthcare passengers. This has to be reversed. I ask the Minister to spell out clearly whether the Government will finally stand on the right side of this and stand with the community campaigning to get this decision overturned.

Sentiment score: -0.22

The Minister of State talked about the airport. Staff at Donegal Airport are ripping about this. They are actually taking legal advice. They told the Department not to enter into the contract. We told the Department not to enter into the contract. I put it to the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach. The Minister of State said the Minister for Transport is listening. The Minister just gave a slap in the face to the people of Donegal. He entered into a contract. It is there in black and white. I have a copy and it refers to "the Minister for Transport and the airline". He entered into that contract without even speaking to the representative group which organises and supports the cancer flights from Donegal to Dublin. That is how much respect the Minister of State's colleague gave to the people of Donegal, the Minister of State and anyone else who tried to be in his ear. At the end of the day, this is a Government decision and the Government knew about this since October. The Minister of State talked about risk. There is no risk any more for us because the midday flights are gone. The risk has materialised. People who I know and, I am sure, the Minister of State knows are telling him today that the reason they are able to still put their children to bed is that those flights were not a convenience for them but a lifeline, and the Government signed them away. What has happened is appalling and I still have not heard the steps the Government needs to take to do that. There is a way to fix this. It should never have come to this. Donegal Airport did not even know about it and found out about it by chance just a couple of weeks ago. The Government knew about this for months. When the airline said it was getting rid of the afternoon flights, the Department should have said, in October, it was going back out to tender and would stipulate that afternoon flights be provided. Nobody should be in this situation, but we now need to clean up the mess. I am raising this today, as I did with the Taoiseach and Tánaiste last week, because we are not going to let this go until these flights are restored.

Sentiment score: -0.01