Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

I come here in haste, as we are very engrossed in the Committee of Public Accounts today. The privatisation of Aer Lingus is an act of gross treachery by the Government against the people, the Aer Lingus workers and the communities that depend on the national airline. This privatisation is not driven by the interest of the welfare of the workers or the national airline but by the right wing neo-liberal agenda of the Government representing capitalists' interests. The normal fraud is repeated again today with the front page of the Irish Independent giving the impression that ordinary working people can invest in Aer Lingus. The people will not be fooled this time as some of them were with the Telecom Éireann privatisation when they were badly burned. The proprietor of Independent News and Media was one of those who handsomely gained from that privatisation, sweating that national asset of the people for huge profits and with very detrimental effects on the investment that was necessary in broadband and in other aspects of that industry. Privatisation is detrimental to workers' interests. All we need to do is consider Irish Sugar here which was once a thriving industry and is now completely wiped out in favour of sweated sugar from Brazil. That is the logic of capitalist privatisation. It benefits only the sharks.

I commend the workers of Aer Lingus, who did not want to discommode passengers this morning, but had no option except to show in a small way the huge power they carry and the extremely important role they play in the transport infrastructure. The workers of Aer Lingus can only rely on their own power. I urge them to carry on and to go forward with more developed industrial action to stop the Government carrying on in this completely undemocratic way. The Government has no mandate for this action. In the last general election campaign neither of the Government parties proposed the privatisation of Aer Lingus if the people returned them to power.

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