Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

It is essential that the House address this important issue. Before the decision to privatise Aer Lingus was made, the House was promised a White Paper which would address the strategy implications of privatisation for the country, including in the key area of regional policy. A White Paper has not been produced. In addition, we have discovered that the Minister did not appoint representatives to the Aer Lingus board who would convey Government opinion and policy. Protection against the leasing or switching of the slots at Heathrow Airport was not built in to the process and the vehicles the Government dreamed up to protect regional strategy proved to be unworkable. We now learn that, six weeks before a decision was made, officials in the Department circulated a note to the airport authority in which they raised this fact and that a second note was prepared either for the former or current Minister. Who in the Government is in charge if a Minister does not know of an issue of such importance? It was a core part of the strategy of the Department of Transport and the Minister was not informed. Huge questions must be asked at some stage in the Dáil today.

Apart from the Minister, who knew of this? Did the retiring Minister know? Did other Departments know and what did they do about it? Why were systems not set up from the very start, by Government, to ensure that matters of such tremendous importance to regional strategy were immediately conveyed to Ministers so that effective action could be taken? It seems that the Government just wanted something to happen, but did not put any policy in place to make it happen. That is very clear from the notes circulated today. The departmental note of 13 June acknowledged that Aer Lingus was free to redeploy its slots to new services at the very time Ministers were telling the Dáil that we had a strategy to protect against such. It is a total shambles.

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