Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all of the witnesses. I have engaged with many of them recently and in the past months.

Many factors have got us to this point with Covid being number one. There is also mandatory hotel quarantine, which was necessary during very high levels of Covid but it certainly has not helped in recent weeks. Lastly, there is the decision by Aer Lingus.

The Aer Lingus decision to close its Shannon base on the eve of the return of international travel can only be summed up as Aer Lingus taking the taxpayer for a ride because it has availed hugely of the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, and the pandemic unemployment payment, PUP. I have a copy of a redacted Aer Lingus cabin crew contract with me. It very clearly states that his or her contract is to the airline not to the Shannon base yet Aer Lingus whether it has been a temporary lay-off or base closure it has cherrypicked and gone after Shannon.

I have a question for Ms Mary Mulholland and Mr. Gerry Clarke from the Shannon base. Many people initially interpreted the talk of inefficiency as a dig at Shannon Airport corporate. I believe that it is a dig at Aer Lingus's workforce and loyal employees who stood by the company for many years. The fact remains that if one took up employment with Aer Lingus 15 months ago in Dublin then one is still employed. However, if one has worked with Aer Lingus for 30 years at Shannon then the attitude is "good luck", which has pretty much been the attitude to date. What do Ms Mulholland and Mr. Clarke understand the term "inefficient" to mean? Is ageism involved? Does it relate to the payroll? Does it relate to pay and conditions at the Shannon base? Many things could be held culpable but we want to get to the bottom of the issue today. From an industrial relations point of view, Shannon has been singled out. The crisis has been used as an excuse to carry out what Aer Lingus has wanted to do for a very long time and that is to slowly withdraw from Shannon. Whatever we do as a Government and any supports that we provide from here on must be conditional on certain strings attached quid pro quoin terms of support for Shannon, its workers and its routes. What does inefficient mean from the point of view of the cabin crew in Shannon?