Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

This is a strategic closure by Lufthansa. The idea that we have a contracting market opportunity is nonsense. The reality is that the aircraft industry is booming. The Government's commitment to seek investment and expand employment in this area is proof of that. The Government is taking that approach because it knows it is an industry that is expanding. Therefore, we should not take too seriously what Lufthansa is stating. This is a strategic closure in its own interest by a company which, at a large meeting in Hamburg on 10 December, spoke about the ambitious growth plans to be implemented in the coming months and referred to its dominant position in the market and so on. That is the reality.

I am glad to hear of the Minister's commitment to protect skilled jobs in this industry. In that context, it makes absolutely no sense to allow these jobs and this skills base to be lost and for the plant to be stripped down, as it will be, if we do not intervene in some way. The workers particularly want to know about the €40 million that was put in. They understood that €40 million was conditional on the plant being maintained. The State is a shareholder in Aer Lingus. The workers also tell me that a load of CFM engines will come on the market soon for maintenance and overhaul and that this work could be done in Rathcoole if we were to maintain the plant and these jobs.

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