Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the role of the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Donohoe, on this issue. He has proven one very important attribute from which some officeholders could learn - it was the engagement and listening process with the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications of which I am a member. Fears and concerns as well as some mistruths that were being spread on the sale or otherwise of Aer Lingus were dealt with in a very constructive way.

We had a couple of days of amateur theatrics by people who arrived at our committee meetings claiming that the world was going to collapse in a heap, which, of course, will not happen. We even had a visit from representatives of Virgin Atlantic. I was delighted to see them in Dublin. I presume they flew in by Aer Lingus or Ryanair because Virgin Atlantic does not service Ireland. My parting shot to them when they were leaving was that they would be very welcome to meet with the Dublin Airport Authority given that they were so concerned about Ireland's connectivity to the wider world and the damage that was going to be done, and that they were very welcome to try servicing the Irish population from Dublin, Cork, Shannon, Knock, Farranfore or wherever. To date, as expected, I have not heard anything from Virgin Atlantic to suggest that it will do that. I do not envisage it launching a flight from here to the Bahamas any time soon.

The sale of Aer Lingus represents a good deal. I had concerns over my region in the mid-west relating to the five years originally suggested. I welcome one thing the IAG CEO, Mr. Willie Walsh, said. He was wrong in something he told the committee. He said that in his commercial activities up to now, the second deal he offered was never as good as or better than the first. He was wrong in that because the second deal is better than the first. I suppose there is a first time for everything and there is a first time for Mr. Willie Walsh to trump his own initial offer.

For the Limerick, north Tipperary and Clare region I represent this is of huge significance. Unlike what happened when the first 75% of Aer Lingus was sold by the last Administration, there is now certainty about Shannon Airport's connectivity to Heathrow for the next seven years. If one wanted assurance or otherwise from any non-political source that this is the right thing for the mid-west region from Loop Head down to Mountcollins, all one has to do is read the Shannon Airport statement and the comments of people associated with the airport, who do business with the airport and fly people into and out of it. They believe this is a good deal.

It does not surprise me that the Opposition would be so opposed to it because every initiative the Government has taken to rebuild the tourism industry has been opposed by Fianna Fáil in particular. It opposed the jobs initiative, which reduced the VAT rate in the hospitality sector. Twelve months after opposing it, Fianna Fáil Members were in Buswell's Hotel telling us that we should retain and extend it. They scoffed at the Wild Atlantic Way and yet some of them now want it extended to cover Mullingar and Longford. They also scoffed at every other initiative that has been taken. For instance they had an opportunity to deal with the independence of Shannon Airport but did not take it. They also had an opportunity to deal with the travel tax issue and instead they hiked it up.

Every initiative taken by the Government to rebuild the tourism sector has been opposed by Fianna Fáil. Is it any wonder the Fianna Fáil Party lost a Senator this week? She crystalised what it was to be in Fianna Fáil, namely, opposition for opposition's sake. When it comes to the party's stance on Aer Lingus, nobody does hypocrisy like Fianna Fáil. It has a brass neck, given that it was responsible for the sale of 75% of Aer Lingus, in respect of which we received no guarantees with reference to the slots. When the slots were moved to Belfast, the then MP for West Belfast said it was a great day for Belfast that slots were being moved from Shannon Airport to facilitate the people of Belfast. Now that he is a Member of this House he is bemoaning the fact that we are receiving a guarantee. Perhaps he is bemoaning the fact that we are receiving a guarantee that slots will be retained at Shannon Airport and not moved to his home place in Belfast. Perhaps that is where he would like them to be. Whatever he does or does not want, I am concerned only about the people who elected me to this House. Those who did so want me to ensure that, as somebody once said in this House, the rabbits will not be running around the runway at Shannon Airport and they are not.

The decision by the Government to give Shannon Airport its independence was opposed by the leader of Fianna Fáil. I have asked his colleagues from the mid-west to dissociate themselves from the scurrilous attacks he has launched time and again on Shannon Airport, but they will not do so. There are Deputies from counties Clare and Tipperary and my own county of Limerick who are hiding behind mealy-mouthed statements in terms of Deputy Micheál Martin's constant attacks on Shannon Airport and its independence. Since the Government took the initiative to separate Shannon Airport from Dublin Airport, Shannon Airport has literally taken off. There is now connectivity to Philadelphia and Chicago, while Ryanair's passenger numbers at the airport have increased, as has the number of flights to New York and Boston. The airport is literally about to take-off, yet the leader of the Fianna Fáil Party, week after week, comes into the House to attack it; for what reason, I do not know. He has something against the mid-west. Perhaps it is because Clare or Tipperary beat Cork in hurling or because Limerick have the odd win over it from time to time. He has a major issue with Shannon Airport being given its independence having been under the cosh of Dublin Airport for 17 years. It is not too late for some of his back benchers and colleagues in the Seanad to sound him out on this issue and ask him to stop attacking the airport. It does not behove the Leader of the Opposition party to do so.

On the future of Aer Lingus, much bigger airlines such as Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, KLM, Air France, British Airways, Iberia and so on have formed alliances for one reason and one reason only, namely, to ensure they can survive. The corollary of this is Sabena, the former Belgian national carrier. Small carriers are swallowed up. When it comes to fleet replacement which Aer Lingus will need to do in the not too distant future, there are no cash reserves. The Opposition continues to state there is loads of money in Aer Lingus and that we should potter along until it runs out, at which point the State might intervene. The State cannot intervene under EU state aid rules. The Belgian national carrier, Sabena, a once proud airline and one of the longest serving airlines in the world, evaporated in a puff of smoke. The same could happen to other airlines in peripheral countries such as Ireland unless there is a realisation that the future of the airline industry across the world lies in consolidation, as I have heard said many times at the transport committee. It is not globalisation or, to use the catch phrase usually thrown around by Members on the opposite side, "a neoliberal agenda" but the commercial reality. The commercial reality for airlines does not differ from that for other business, be they small or large. We are in a changing environment and Aer Lingus has changed. It has changed and become a leaner, more efficient machine. It is now a proud carrier that can stand on its own two feet and hold its own among the best. It is also looking to the future and a world in which there will be a lot fewer airlines carrying more passengers into bigger hubs.

I take issue with the point made earlier by a Member of the House about the recovery of and the regional imbalance in my region. The Deputy concerned obviously does not realise 16% of the population of the State reside in my region or that 30% of IDA Ireland jobs are located in it. Despite the fact that his party was in government for 14 years, it did nothing about the Cork to Limerick road. Not only has the Government decided that Limerick and Galway need to be connected via a motorway by way of completion of the Gort to Tuam road, it also proposes to prioritise a link with the Port of Foynes, a proposal which Fianna Fáil also opposed in its ports policy. Fianna Fáil opposed the designation of the Port of Foynes in my constituency as a tier 1 port. Again, it was opposition for opposition's sake. That is how Fianna Fáil under Deputy Micheál Martin does it. That is the reason the motion before us is being opposed. Leaving aside the fact that Fianna Fáil was responsible for the sale of 75% of Aer Lingus, in respect of which it obtained no guarantees, that slots were relocated from Shannon Airport to Belfast Airport and have only been returned to Shannon Airport because it is profitable, has good management and an excellent team and Fianna Fáil's lack of an aviation policy for the 17 years it was in government, the motion is being opposed by Fianna Fáil because it is a good idea from the Government. If that is the way the principal Opposition party is going to behave in this Dáil, is it any wonder some of its members are departing the party faster than one can get a aeroplane off the tarmac at Dublin Airport?

From my point of view, this is a good deal, for which I commend the Minister for Transport. In the past couple of months he engaged positively with and listened to the transport committee. He also spoke and listened to individual Members and sectoral interests, including representatives of the tourism and transport industries, the hotels federation, restaurateurs and so on. He managed to do something that Mr. Willie Walsh said would not be done, namely, obtain a second deal that was better than the first. This is a good deal for Ireland, Aer Lingus, the mid-west and my own county of Limerick.

See this speech in context