Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

This Taoiseach is the ultimate three card trick man — talk about twisting what I said. I was not all over the place on this issue. I concentrated on the net point, which is the strategic interest of our people in control of the national airline. I have no difficulty with private capital going into the company. I have great difficulty with surrendering control and that is what the Taoiseach is about to announce today. That is the issue. The Taoiseach came into this House and sought to justify it in terms of the future capital needs of the company but there is nothing preventing investment in the company. When and if the time arises there is nothing preventing the Taoiseach doing that. We know from the decision of the European Court of Justice that a golden share is of no value in protecting strategic interests. This is about tourism, trade and the national interest. Ryanair has done a great job, where it has done its job, but the last thing we need is another Ryanair. We do not want to convert Aer Lingus into a Ryanair and effectively make it a subsidiary to serve the strategic interests of BA or another company. After the Telecom Éireann scandal, there is no prospect that the Government will raise money from small shareholders so it will sell it off either in a trade sale or to a large venture capitalist. The most likely prospect is BA, as the Taoiseach knows as well as I do. In those circumstances we will lose control and be left naked. The Taoiseach is prepared to launch this for approximately €300 million but he would spend €300 million more on a football stadium that he never built. There is no point in trying to present this as a huge obstacle to the State at this stage of its development.

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