Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)

It seems fairly clear that there is an intent to sell the rest of the Government's stake in Aer Lingus. That is a shame because Aer Lingus has served the country well as the flagship airline for many years. In addition, it has delivered a profitable organisation. What is probably holding up the sale of Aer Lingus at the moment is the pension fund. That is another issue we will have to deal with but it is a shame that we are going down this road.

We are blaming the Troika and Europe for the fact that we have to get money. The Minister said he does not even know whether, in selling the rest of Aer Lingus, we will be able to invest that money in other projects to create jobs. We will possibly end up with Ryanair in control of our main airline, which is a shame. A private company will be in charge of our national airline. We saw what happened over the years when private companies take over. They cut jobs and tend to pay a lot less to the remaining workers. We are heading down that road now. We had a profitable State-run institution in Aer Lingus. It is not fully State-owned, although it should be. I appeal to the Minister not to sell of the rest of the State's stake in Aer Lingus. It would be a shame and should not happen.

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