John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Walsh.

We have had a series of meetings in the lead-up to today's meeting. As Mr. Walsh has said, questions and concerns were raised at those meetings. We met representatives of various trades unions, IBEC, chambers of commerce, tourism interests, IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland and so forth. They raised questions relating to jobs, connectivity, the possible impact on the regional State airports at Shannon and Cork and on tourism, as well as the future of the Heathrow slots. I am setting the context for the questions from members which will come later. There was talk about the need for guarantees. Some groups saw some positive aspects to the proposed sale if guarantees could be given. While Mr. Walsh made reference to that in his presentation, to what degree can any guarantee be guaranteed?

Up until today there was an absence of information on the proposed bid which is why Mr. Walsh is very welcome. I hope he can answer the questions posed today. I have a number of questions myself and then I will hand over to committee members. My first question relates to Aer Lingus Regional, which is a subsidiary of Aer Lingus employing 400 people in Ireland. If this sale were to go ahead, what would be the impact on Aer Lingus Regional down the line? I ask Mr. Walsh to address the knock-on effects that this would have for regional airports in Ireland. We have talked about Dublin, Shannon and Cork, but what about the regional airports like Knock and others? I am from the west of Ireland and chaired a study group on the potential of the airport there. Aer Lingus flies 70,000 passengers into Knock Airport every year. The airport has 700,000 passengers at the moment but wants to grow that figure to 1.3 million. Would the IAG bid for Aer Lingus help or hinder that? Finally, I heard Mr. Walsh in a radio interview this morning saying that what some politicians have said in recent weeks could be potentially damaging for Aer Lingus and I ask him to expand on that point.