Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle and we will each speak for five minutes. I thank the Minister of State for agreeing to give us a few more minutes.

I wish all Members well, a number of whom will be retiring from the House and it is unlikely that very many or certainly that all of us will be here in this Chamber again. I have appreciated being here for the past three and a half years and I have always been treated with courtesy and friendship by Members on all sides of the House.

We are now in the dying days of this Government but it has been in free fall for many weeks. This free fall started with the bank guarantee which destroyed the economy and the nation's sovereignty. The IMF and the EU entered the country unopposed and dictated savage financial conditions for the banks' bail-out on the taxpayers. The Government went AWOL, so to speak, Fianna Fáil fiddled and the Greens went chasing the stag-hunters of Meath.

Today, as the House debates the Finance Bill 2011, there is a very serious aviation dispute taking place between Aer Lingus and the IMPACT trade union. The former Minister for Transport, Deputy Noel Dempsey, has indicated he plans to retire and has therefore resigned as Minister. The new Minister for Transport, Deputy Pat Carey, is overwhelmed by multiple responsibilities. I wish to make a plea that we would not lose sight of what is happening. This dispute is escalating at a fast rate and more than 180 cabin crew staff, mostly women, have been taken off the payroll and another 21, at least, will be taken off today which means that 20% of the entire cabin crew staff are gone. Aer Lingus has stated it will be reducing its operations by 10%. The company is hiring in carriers such as Ryanair and others and it is spending significant sums in an effort to break this dispute. This is not the way forward. Any Government and Minister worth their salt would be intervening at this stage.

This is a long-running dispute which has escalated over the past two weeks and has gone out of control. I ask that the new Minister for Transport, Deputy Pat Carey, would use his good offices to intervene to speak to both parties, to Aer Lingus management and to IMPACT. This State has a 25% shareholding in Aer Lingus. If necessary, the Minister should arrange for third party mediation, binding arbitration, as this will resolve the dispute. If the Minister for Transport is not listening in the House today I ask the Minister of State to relay that request. We are dealing with Fianna Fáil elections, a Finance Bill and a budget -----

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