Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I agree with what my two colleagues have said. I am surprised at the attitude of the chambers. That is fine if they got the guarantees. Aer Lingus is a profitable company that has done a huge amount to develop this country but when one looks at the performance of British Airways in its own market its consumer ranking is No. 17. It is not Singapore Airlines. It is substantially overshadowed in its home market by EasyJet and Ryanair. I do not know what it brings to the party but it appears that for a few guarantees Chambers Ireland is happy to agree to the sale for, as the Deputy outlined, a minuscule amount of money.

I am pushed into a situation where I have to say that one should please look at what Christoph Mueller and company have done in Aer Lingus in recent years and give it a bit of support at this stage. It is bizarre that if we got the slots we would not mind that British Airways could transfer jobs and managerial functions. Let us look at what happened in the United States when airlines are taken over and the anti-competitive nature of the hub and spoke system to peripheral places. We must get a bit of life into the campaign because what I have heard this afternoon is not going to cut the mustard.

As for saying we did not know what was happening, the board agreed to something over the weekend and it is recommending the deal to shareholders. Milk and water stuff from the chambers of commerce does not help to develop the Irish economy at all. Let us get some adrenaline into it. If one does not mind, that is fine, but as Deputy Fitzmaurice said, we will not get agreement to conditions anyway. The chambers should stop waffling and either support the sale, which they appear to be leaning towards in terms of the safeguards, which they will not get, or recognise that to sell a brand such as Aer Lingus that was built up over 80 years for €300 million which will go into a fund in Brussels would be extremely silly. Would they have the same attitude if Tesco wanted to buy out Brown Thomas? Do such things mean nothing to the business community? The presentations were very strange.