Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

I am delighted to have this opportunity, as Labour Party spokesperson on transport, to speak on this important motion and to stand with my colleagues from the west and mid-west, Deputies O'Sullivan and Higgins, who have led the campaign to protect Shannon Airport's Heathrow slots.

The Labour Party's position on this matter is clear and unequivocal: the Government as a 25.4% shareholder must convene an extraordinary general meeting to ensure Shannon Airport and the mid-west region does not lose the vital Heathrow slots which provide a gateway to the rest of the world for travellers and business people. Deputy O'Sullivan has rightly described the Heathrow slots as an essential part of Shannon Airport's connectivity with 350,000 people using the route annually and approximately 30% of passengers on the Shannon-Heathrow route connecting to further destinations worldwide.

Fianna Fáil Ministers have acknowledged the overwhelming importance of the Shannon-Heathrow slots to the region's connectivity and to job creation and industrial development in the mid-west. The Minister described as critical the maintenance of the Shannon Airport-Heathrow link. The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Martin, stated that the capacity to attract additional jobs could be hampered by this decision. There is no fudging on this issue. This decision has a real impact. However, even with the recognition at the highest Government level that this important region's global connectivity and attractiveness for job creation will be critically affected, the Fianna Fáil-Green Party-Progressive Democrats Government is prepared to stand by and let this happen.

Nobody would disagree with the anodyne sentiments expressed in the Government motion but is it not pathetic for the Minister for Transport and the Marine, Deputy Dempsey, and his colleagues to ask Dáil Éireann to share the Government's deep disappointment at the Aer Lingus decision to end the Shannon-Heathrow service? After all, as a 25.4% shareholder, this Government is in a position to act to maintain this link. The Labour Party and I strongly believe that the decision to remove the Shannon-Heathrow slots is wrong and is bad for the mid-west, Ireland and our strategic national interests. The Minister should urgently call an EGM or take advantage of the proposed AGM to discuss this matter.

A key part of the Government's hypocrisy in pushing for the privatisation of a key State asset such as Aer Lingus is its ability to now state that decisions made by the company have nothing to do with it and that there is little it can do to reverse these decisions. However, did the Government not know all along and not care about the devastating impact on the mid-west or the possible knock-on effects for Heathrow slots allocated for other Irish airports including Cork and Dublin?

It is clear that the expansion project which included the re-allocation of the Heathrow slots was part of the business plan prepared for the flotation of Aer Lingus. The proposal to eliminate the Shannon-Heathrow slots and the development of a Heathrow connection for Belfast International Airport was clearly brought forward by the chief executive, Dermot Mannion, and his management team. At a succession of board meetings, the business plan for the flotation and the Belfast to Heathrow connection were strongly endorsed. Surely this implies the unanimous support of the board of Aer Lingus including the Government's representative, Mr. Francis Hackett.

It is scarcely credible that a profound business decision such as the removal of the Heathrow slots from Shannon could have been developed without the approval of the board under any model of good corporate governance. Those of us who have experience as directors of companies will know this is the case. The question then arises as to when the Minister and his colleagues first became aware of this plan. The question also arises as to how the Minister for Defence, Deputy O'Dea, following his statement on the loss of the slots for Shannon can remain in Government given the doctrine of collective Cabinet responsibility.

In 2006, the Labour Party transport spokesperson, Deputy Shortall, provided this House with a detailed and unambiguous critique of the Government's privatisation plans and set out the obvious threat to Ireland's regional and national strategic interests as a result of the privatisation of Aer Lingus. The Labour Party ploughed a very lonely furrow in that privatisation debate. We stood alone with the support of only a few Independents. We received no support from this side of the House except in the final vote. The Labour Party foresaw the Ryanair elephant coming down the tracks and foresaw what would happen to Shannon, Cork and Dublin.

The value of the Heathrow slots to our island nation and the potential danger to these slots if Aer Lingus was privatised was one of the major issues flagged by the Labour Party to the Taoiseach and former Minister for Transport, Deputy Cullen, during debates on privatisation. Unfortunately, those clear sighted warnings from Deputy Shortall and others were ignored and now appear to be coming to pass just a few short months following the privatisation of Aer Lingus. In preparing for the IPO the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats Government paid a staggering €30 million for the advice of consultants and outside advisers. However, none of those advisers appears to have foreseen the problems which would arise within days in terms of the Ryanair takeover bid and the strategic regional interests of this country.

The former Minister for Transport, Deputy Cullen, told this House that arrangements had been made to safeguard the Heathrow slots by building them into the memorandum and articles of association. He went on at length about this, including in a debate which I had with him about the 30.4% and 25.4% shareholdings. He had the cheek to say in retrospect that he considered that four London-Heathrow services to and from Cork and four summer season and three winter season services to and from Shannon would each be critical to ensuring connectivity to those airports because that is the minimum necessary to ensure a spread of flights throughout the day.

Why are the Minister for Transport and the Marine, Deputy Dempsey, the Minister for Finance and the rest of their colleagues not demanding that an extraordinary general meeting be called? We have heard some slíbhín-type semantic manoeuvrings from various Ministers and Deputies that this is a mere slot transfer rather than a slot disposal and for this reason we cannot use the powers of the extraordinary general meeting. However, that is just a low and despicable attempt to avoid dealing with the Government's responsibility on the matter and its responsibility to the citizens of Shannon and the mid-west. Apart from the analysis provided by Deputy Shortall and the Labour Party on the effects of privatisation, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport held protracted and comprehensive hearings on the proposed sale of Aer Lingus in May 2006. Repeated warnings issued about what would happen. For example, Dr. Aisling Reynolds-Feighan stated: "Aer Lingus is small and vulnerable to takeover in the event of it being privatised in a substantial fashion...It is vital the Government holds on to a significant shareholding to control its destiny in terms of air access to the country...If this requires periodic Government investment and is necessary to protect our strategic interests, so be it; that is what we must do". Deputies Dooley and Peter Power served on that committee and they agreed the committee's report, which I am quoting. Is it not arrant hypocrisy that Members can turn up today and vote against a report they agreed?

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