Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for being late. Something else came up which distracted me. On the legal guarantees IAG has offered, first it offered the five-year guarantees. The Government has said it is looking for something longer like ten years. Is it unusual in the airline industry to offer such guarantees? Certainly to us, it appears to be unusual to give guarantees on the retention of slots. Are there problems in making a guarantee like that? From many people's perspective, they are not worth the paper they are printed on and things can change. I am curious about Mr. Thompson's views in that regard.

In terms of competition, Mr. Thompson said Aer Lingus is Virgin's biggest feed partner. Would there be any repercussions from this merger for Virgin's operations? Mr. Thompson has not given an opinion on whether he agrees or disagrees with the merger, but is there a possibility that his own airline could lose out? It is clear that Aer Lingus has been very successful. Its passenger numbers are up. There are 11 million passengers and they have been expanding. Is it Mr. Thompson's belief that IAG is solely after the slots for long-haul services? Certainly a combination of that is in its game plan. Long haul is very important to IAG and it needs more long haul. I do not know if Mr. Thompson can answer those questions but it would be interesting if he would give us an opinion. These are some of the things we think are behind this.