Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will shift the focus quickly to Shannon Airport. I am a representative for Limerick city. As I said, when Covid-19 restrictions are fully removed, we very much look forward to Ms Embleton visiting Shannon Airport and the region. Iberia received a €1 billion credit guarantee from the Spanish Government. The major condition under that agreement was that there would be no compulsory redundancies.

Iberia is part of IAG and you have come from IAG to Aer Lingus. It is all one major entity. With regard to the cabin crew in Shannon Airport, I have a twofold question. My understanding was that before the arrival of the pandemic, Aer Lingus was seeking to increase the number of its aeroplanes flying out of Shannon Airport across a range of areas. Is that the case? Clearly, the load factors are very good in Shannon, which means that Aer Lingus needs a base there. Second, why did Aer Lingus not look at voluntary redundancies? Why did it go for the nuclear option, which was to take out the base? They are two brief questions and I two further follow-up questions for Ms Embleton. The €1 billion Iberia loan-----