Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

The manner in which the debate has been organised is disgraceful. A few hours ago we were handed a speech. This is an attempt to steam-roll the motion through and push it to a vote tomorrow before workers, their families and the communities which depend on Aer Lingus have a chance to find out about it or, more importantly, object and lobby their Deputies, particularly Labour Party Deputies. It is an act of treachery by Fine Gael and the Labour Party in selling the last remaining shares in Aer Lingus. It is yet another broken promise by the Labour Party, the tactics of which seem to be to boycott debates in which it might be held to account in any way, shape or form. In April 2006, when Fianna Fáil sold 75% of Aer Lingus, Deputy Pat Rabbitte jumped up and down during Leaders' Questions and said: "The Progressive Democrats has pushed Fianna Fáil so far to the right - it would have been unthinkable even a decade ago that Fianna Fáil would have sold off the national airline in a country that has the strategic requirements of an island nation." Now, the Labour Party has been pushed so far to the right that it is going along with this proposal.

Although we are hearing many fake assurances about jobs and conditions, according to IMPACT, one in four people in Aer Lingus could lose his or her job under the deal if IAG follows the traditional path it has followed so far. There has not been one word from the Minister about pensions. Did he receive any assurance about the matter or does he have anything to say about it? The same assurances were given in 1997 when TEAM Aer Lingus, the maintenance company Aer Lingus used to own, was sold to another multinational giant, SR Technics. By February 2009, the company had been closed completely, with the loss of 1,300 jobs, and the business moved to Zurich and the Middle East. The company had been profitable with highly skilled workers, many of whom lived and worked in my constituency. Why would Aer Lingus be any different in a few years time? The Taoiseach and the Minister have come away from the CEO of Aer Lingus, not from IAG, with a letter about employment rights and the CEO does not foresee a likelihood of either compulsory redundancies or non-direct employment. Is the Minister for real? Is this as good as he gets? Does he expect people to buy this? Aer Lingus is already moving to subcontract out and employ non-direct labour on Atlantic routes. I sent the Minister a letter about the matter and tabled a question on it and he told me to toddle along to Aer Lingus, although the Government had a 25% share in Aer Lingus.

The Minister mentioned and the Taoiseach repeated that the Government had better assurances and control over the slots and Aer Lingus than ever before. It does not. The Government chose not to exert any control over Aer Lingus. Its 25% share, combined with the pilots and others, was a very decisive influence, if we had a Government that cared about a national airline, public enterprise and workers' rights. Selling the last vestiges of control by the public over a strategic asset to a multinational shark is what is going on today.

What else would it do other than cut costs and operate in its own interests? It will not be acting in the strategic interests of the people of this country. That is what multinationals do. The Minister indicated that its preference will be to utilise direct labour, but only where it is efficient and effective to do so, and that it will avoid compulsory redundancies. It did not rule out compulsory redundancies, however. There will be redundancies at Aer Lingus, and while they may be voluntary at first they will be compulsory if necessary. The Minister expects us to think that he has managed to find a way of persuading multinationals to behave differently. That is amazing given that the record of IAG's previous takeovers suggests the opposite.

The Minister also outlined the important contribution that Aer Lingus has made to this country. He should be seeking to buy more shares in the company in order to renationalise it and to right the wrong Fianna Fáil committed in 2006. It is the 19th largest indigenous company in this country. It employs 4,000 people directly and many more indirectly. Its slots were valued by Deloitte at €925 million and it has net cash reserves of €445 million. If the Minister could ditch his ideological aversion to public ownership, the taxpayer spends billions of euro attracting this type of company to Ireland and supporting them through IDA and Enterprise Ireland. This is an indigenous company with a respected brand which contributes to the Exchequer and turns a profit but apparently it must be sold. The pilots in Aer Lingus have made it clear that IAG needs Aer Lingus rather than it being the other way around. Aer Lingus has something that other airlines want, namely, the slots in Heathrow Airport. These slots are invaluable to regional development in Ireland. Some 25% of business in Shannon and 20% of business in Cork depend on Heathrow. Control over those slots will be completely lost in seven years time. This is a small, open economy in a globalised world. We need a strategic aviation bridge with the rest of the world. The Government can invest billions of euro of taxpayers' money to prop up failed private banks and developers or to bail out the Quinn Group, Eircom and even a lottery company that is unable to run a successful lottery but it cannot invest in a profitable company like Aer Lingus. The Minister pretends that the company cannot survive without the deal but he has not outlined the threats that require it to be sold to a shark. It has survived Ryanair, which it is conveniently forgotten was established with considerable help from Aer Lingus. It also survived 9/11 and it has gone on to spawn other companies.

The Labour Party thinks it can rush this through the Dáil and present it as a fait accomplito the workers and communities of north Dublin, Limerick and Cork in the expectation that people will have forgiven and forgotten by next year's election. I assure Labour Party Deputies this is just another nail in their coffin. It will hasten their demise in those aforementioned areas and any attempt to save face will be futile. Their silence today is deafening.

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