Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

Is the Taoiseach filled with embarrassment this morning over the mess into which, by the privatisation of the national airline, he has plunged Aer Lingus workers who have felt obliged to vote by 95% to take industrial action to repel a very wide-ranging assault on their income and conditions? The Taoiseach sold out Aer Lingus workers, he threw them to the wolves on the international Stock Exchange when he refused to invest in the national airline. He and the Minister for Transport made reassuring noises at the time that workers' wages and conditions would be secure. Only months later, the management of privatised Aer Lingus is arrogantly and unilaterally breaking agreements and imposing wide ranging attacks on workers' wages and conditions.

See this speech in context