Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, the Taoiseach told Deputy Adams he could not answer the questions. I assume the reason he has not done it this time is that he could not be bothered to give us the respect of answering. The Taoiseach has not addressed a single issue we raised. Many of the positives he outlined about the airline are already in train and are irrelevant to whether or not IAG takes over. The question of who will benefit from the business development, profitability and growth is not irrelevant. We already have an airline that is growing and that takes 1 million passengers from UK regional airports and transits them to the US through Dublin. That would be a nice business for a Middle Eastern, European or British shareholder who has no particular interest in Ireland.

The Taoiseach referred to future jobs. In an airline which had already pre-ordered nine new aircraft, new pilots and cabin crew were inevitable. The Taoiseach has been silent on the reality that outsourcing and redundancies of ground staff is practically inevitable in this scenario. Where are the guarantees for the workers? The Taoiseach has not given any, nor do I expect him to, given that he is a neo-liberal leader of a neo-liberal party. That what he stands for. That is his record and fair play to him. However, there was a time when the people in the Labour Party said they stood for something different. The cheek of these people saying they would give commitments to airport pensioners, that if this deal went through the pensioners' livelihoods would be protected, that they would put the proceeds in a fund to secure their future.

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