Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 12 February 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications

Proposed Sale of Aer Lingus: (Resumed) IAG

2:00 pm

Mr. Willie Walsh:

I am happy to continue.

In response to Deputy Costello, I am fully familiar with the terms of the Aer Lingus Act 2004 and the requirement for the Minister for Finance to put before the Dáil a proposal to dispose of shares. We fully understand that and I understand the reasons it was put in place. However, it is important to point out that the 25.1% does not in any way give the Government a voice over how the Heathrow slots are operated - there was a misunderstanding at the time that it may have. All it does is allow the Government, with the support of other shareholders holding 5%, to block the disposal of a share. That is it. We are going well beyond what is available to the Government today by giving commitments to continue with the ability to allow the Government to exercise its voice over whether any Heathrow slots would be disposed of.

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