Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Aer Lingus has always made it clear that it uses direct labour where that is possible and as far as I can recall, there have been no compulsory redundancies in Aer Lingus. I pointed out that when the Cabinet was briefed this morning by the Minister, he referred to employment, to the REAs, to the question of compulsory redundancies and to all of the issues, such as employment, protection and growth of jobs, potential for employment of pilots, engineering and airline staff, connectivity, the issues raised by Deputy Martin, connectivity from Cork, Shannon and Dublin to Britain and Heathrow and to Gatwick in the case of Knock, connectivity to the United States and Europe, the opportunity that presents itself for serious growth and the changes that are being discussed in regard to the slots, their legality, their disposal, the brand image of the airline and the name of the airline. All of these matters were part of the briefing the Minister gave.

I have told Deputy Adams already that if the Government signs off on this evening on this decision, whatever decision it makes, all the details will be made public and we will have a normal full-scale debate in the House. This is a matter that should be discussed and the House should be able to comment on the decision made by the Government and the details of that. This is in everybody's interest. However, let me be clear on this. As I said to Deputy Martin, the Government will make its decision in the best interest of the people. That means analysing thoroughly all of the relevant issues. This is an important issue for Ireland as an island nation. We need greater connectivity to keep up our exports, our businesses and to support the huge numbers of people who will come to this country from many parts of the world in the time ahead.

When this process began, I made it perfectly clear on behalf of the Government that we could only consider it in the context of guarantees being given in respect of fundamentally important matters.

See this speech in context