Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)

I apologise but I am deeply annoyed with the numerous scams in our society today, where regular taxpayers are punished while other people get away with dishonesty.

To return to the debate, I urge everybody involved to look at the facts and deal with the reality. When the State company, Eircom, was privatised 500,000 small investors lost one third of their investment. The loss to our economy and society from the privatisation of that company in a vital strategic area, which held a monopoly in many areas of its operations, had a greater long-term impact than the combined personal losses of those investors. At privatisation, Eircom was highly profitable, had no debt, was investing heavily in Ireland, reducing prices and providing an increasing variety of services. Today it is loss making and has cut its investment dramatically because it is heavily in debt as private investors extracted much capital from it.

Ireland is an island economy. Our largest trading partner across the water, the UK, and Heathrow is vital to Irish business. It is the key connection point for our much travelled people. Aer Lingus has valuable slots at Heathrow that the new owners will inevitably sell off to reduce the debt incurred by buying the airline. The new owners of Eircom sold off its fastest growing subsidiary, Eircell, to Vodafone, and many other assets shortly after privatisation. A pair of slotsin Heathrow sold recently for £10 million sterling and Aer Lingus has many of them, which are as vital as the airbridge between Dublin and London. They are more valuable for long distance operations. Business and other travellers will be ejected and have to use Gatwick and Stansted.

Ryanair has no particular commitment to Ireland and has demonstrated this again and again. Michael O'Leary makes a higher profit on his Irish routes than on any others and that is the main attraction to Ireland for him. He would be gone in the morning if it suited him. The venture capitalists and management will sell on Aer Lingus to the highest bidder within a few years of taking their gains. The new owner, and not necessarily an airline, could close Aer Lingus Irish headquarters and run it from offshore, ignoring the strategic concerns of Irish business, consumers and its workforce. These are important issues.

I support the motion because it is about Aer Lingus. It is also about the future of our island economy. It is about people and taxpayers but above all it is a commonsense motion about the future of the economy and the aviation industry.

See this speech in context