Deputy McDonald raised the issue I am about to raise with the Taoiseach earlier. We have campaigners from Donegal with us who made the journey. The long and the short of it is that the Government entered a contract with Emerald Airlines yesterday. That contract will end afternoon flights to Donegal and Dublin. The Government did that despite that Donegal Airport asked it not to because it was seeking legal opinion. The cancer campaign group asked the Government not to do it. Some 15,000 people across Donegal asked the Government not to do it. I made pleas on the floor of the Chamber and privately to Ministers involved asking that it not be done. However, the Government signed a contract that will diminish the service to Donegal.

The people who are here today are not here for the good of their health. They represent not only the 500 cancer patients who, at any given time, see this service as a lifeline but also 15,000 people who signed this petition in the past couple of days alone and who knew that this is going to be a devastating blow. The Taoiseach said he would do everything within legal limits. Will he take the opportunity to set out what can be done?

Since Deputy Pat the Cope Gallagher raised this with me, I met with the Minister. The challenge is that if the contract had not been signed yesterday, we would have no service at all.

The Government knew about it in October.

Let us try to share the problem now. If it had not been signed yesterday, there would be no service. We have to try to work within that constraint. There was one tenderer to my knowledge. The Minister does not get involved in the tendering negotiations. He cannot. I presume the Deputy approves of that in the sense that we do not get involved with companies, tendering processes and all of that. The fact that there was one tenderer was a problem. We are not satisfied with the outcome . We would have preferred the retention of the afternoon flight and the plane remaining overnight in Donegal. Substantial money is being allocated to the public service obligation, PSO. My understanding is that it is the only PSO.

What is the Government going to do about it?

We are looking to review this within three months and to engage with the successful bidder for this contract.