Mr. Myles Worth:

I thank the joint committee for the invitation to attend this meeting. I have been group secretary to the group of unions in Aer Lingus for the past nine years. I led the defence documents on the three bids from Ryanair very successfully. I wish to focus on two issues, the first of which is staff concerns, while the second is connectivity.

The prospect of Aer Lingus being acquired by IAG has raised huge concerns among the 4,000 workforce employed directly by the airline. As with any mergers, all sides involved tend to look at what synergies they can deploy. This potentially could lead to a major shift in the backroom staff employed in Ireland by Aer Lingus. It is possible that as many as 1,200 jobs could be moved to IAG headquarters in the United Kingdom, which would have a devastating effect on employment and the employment spend in this country.

The aviation division of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport asked us to comment on a new draft aviation policy. One of the questions put to us was: "What is the importance of London Heathrow for Ireland's international connectivity now and in the future?" We are a small island nation; this one of the few small countries not connected to mainland Europe by land. By way of our membership of the European Union, our business links with all of the countries within the Union are crucial to our economic development. At the same time, we must maintain and develop our trade links with our closest neighbour, the United Kingdom, while not forgetting our extremely strong business links with the United States, with the IT sector being particularly important in this relationship. In that context, it is vital that we maintain and develop our air transport links with major airport and business hubs.

We have been lucky enough to have had a State airline for almost 70 years and the State still has a 25.1% share in Aer Lingus, which has strong connectivity with the global hub at Heathrow Airport through slots. For strategic reasons, these slots were vested in Aer Lingus and remained thus after the IPO in 2006. The then Minister for Transport, former Deputy Martin Cullen, assured us that the State would retain a minimum of a 25.1% stake in Aer Lingus to be used as a blocking vote should a predator ever try to acquire or sell this vital State asset. Nothing has changed since 2006. If anything, the case for the State retaining its share in Aer Lingus has probably been strengthened. Ireland is recognised as having a very good transport network infrastructure and many of the world's leading high-tech companies have a base here. Let us not lose it. Even Fianna Fáil could see the importance of maintaining connectivity when it privatised the company.