Seanad report: It would be extremely regrettable if the Government was to use the parliamentary recess to make an important decision on the future of Aer Lingus without the Dáil and the Seanad being in session to scrutinise it, Shane Ross (Ind) said.
There was a danger, he believed, that that was what was planned.
"If we are going to wake up in September and find that Aer Lingus has been sold for a song and there is nothing we can do about it, I think that would be a terrible insult to this House."
Brian Hayes, Fine Gael leader in the House, had earlier said that he had heard the Government intended to bring a special motion before the Dáil tomorrow seeking the permission of the House to proceed with the sale of Aer Lingus.
Stating that he had been very impressed by a speech by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, said he believed that in the next few years Ireland as a society would have to revisit some fairly fundamental legal propositions if we were going to stand up to the drugs warlords, to people damaging our society and to those for whom life had ceased to have any value or sacredness.
Mr McDowell was commenting after the passing of the Criminal Justice Bill.
He said Mr Blair had made the point that, coming from a legal family, he had felt that many things that had been regarded as absolute cornerstones of his country's legal system, but they now lived in a world where they would have to revisit some fundamental propositions.
Mr McDowell said that if, for example, one lived in a world where the destruction of forensic evidence emboldened people to leave guns used to commit murders in burnt-out cars and a world where murder witnesses suddenly became "cold" in terms of recollection, then we would have to recalibrate our law to deal effectively with such situations.
Without endorsing everything that Mr Blair had said - because we had certain constitutional safeguards here - he did believe that we would have to revisit certain fundamental propositions.
David Norris (Ind) said he was glad to see the Minister resile a little bit from his initial enthusiastic endorsement of Mr Blair, "a person I do not have any admiration for despite his legal background.
"I noted with some horror that Mr Blair said that the cornerstones of the British law would have to be revisited. I hope the British people have the good sense to get rid of him before he has any chance to do any more damage to fundamental principles."
Eddie Bohan (FF) urged that consideration be given to the granting of "an amnesty" to the bulk of the estimated 200,000 people holding provisional driving licences.
The relevant Minister should consider such an amnesty for those who had been driving for five years without having had an accident or any problems, he suggested.
Mr Bohan said it was a bit ludicrous that there were so many people driving around the country without a full licence, given the level of carnage that was being witnessed on the roads at present.
Action by the Minister along the lines he was suggesting would solve some of the problems that were being experienced.
House leader Mary O'Rourke said she would bring Mr Bohan's suggestion to the attention of the Minister.
However, she did not know if it would be proper or right to introduce an amnesty.