Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, United Left) | Oireachtas source

I may take less than ten minutes.

We thought we had seen everything in terms of how low the Labour Party was prepared to go in this Government but this decision it has reached is a new low. Aer Lingus was a successful, profitable State enterprise established in 1936, and an important symbol of the independence of this island nation. The decision to part privatise Aer Lingus was a purely ideological one taken by Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats, and rightly denounced as such by the Labour Party at the time.

I heard somebody say earlier that in 2006, the Fianna Fáil Party allowed two hours for the debate. Are we supposed to thank the Government for giving us six hours or eight hours? We are not talking about the time for the debate; we are talking about what the Government is doing. Despite that, Aer Lingus today is a successful and profitable company employing 4,000 people directly and as many again indirectly.

This decision has major consequences for jobs. The verbal guarantee on jobs, that the company does not foresee any future redundancies or job losses, is not worth the paper on which it is written.

In 1990, Aer Lingus's 2,000 workers seconded to TEAM Aer Lingus were given letters of comfort. Those guarantees were not just from Aer Lingus but also from the Government and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. The ink was not even dry on them when those 2,000 workers were transferred to a new employer without their knowledge.

While there will be an increase in the number of pilots and air crew, which the company had already planned - the Government is rehashing the same jobs - they will be offset by job losses among ground crew, catering, check-in and maintenance staff.

Heavy maintenance will be outsourced. Job losses will be inevitable as IAG seeks to rationalise the workforce. Many of us have received e-mails from Aer Lingus workers. A woman who has worked there for a long time e-mailed to say:

I am an Aer Lingus worker. I am very worried about the security of my job with the sale of our fabulous airline. Have our Government learnt nothing after the sale of Irish Ferries and eircom? To me this is a short term gain for long term pain to all employees and to Aer Lingus. Aer Lingus management are set to gain lotto figures with this sale, so they are, of course, pushing this sale. You have one vote on this, guys. We have one vote for the rest of our lives.

That was just one of the many e-mails I have received already about this. This is why the Government is trying to railroad this in before the weekend and the Dáil break, to try to take the pressure off them.

There are serious questions about the €1.3 billion valuation of Aer Lingus in this deal. How can a company with €1 billion in cash, Heathrow slots worth at least €500 million, a fleet of modern aircraft including large transatlantic aircraft, a valuable brand and a brilliant safety record be sold for €1.3 billion. It is incredible that the Government is settling for such a figure. I will quote another e-mail I received from a man who has been an Aer Lingus employees for 42 years and six months:

So much for the protection of Irish workers, but in particular the people who have been robbed of their rightful pensions. We now have certainly the hardships to look forward to in our old age. All politicians who go along with this sale without any reference to our group, the IASS Deferred Pensioners, should hold their heads in shame.

These e-mails are very important, given that they come from the people who are affected by a sale of Aer Lingus. Another e-mail stated:

As you will all be aware, Joe Costello, TD, stated publicly on the Pat Kenny show that deferred pensioners would be factored into any sale of Aer Lingus agreed by the Government. The Labour Party so-called Aer Lingus seven have not even been able to deal with that.

There are 5,000 deferred pensioners and 5,000 current pensioners. Deferred pensioners have been treated disgracefully. Workers with more than 40 years service have seen their pension entitlements reduced by up to 50%. One deferred pensioner who wrote to me has had his pension cut from €12,000 per year - hardly a fortune - down to €6,000 - a pittance. At the very least, the Labour Party Deputies who make promises on these issues should have insisted that money from the deal be set aside to alleviate the problems faced by the deferred pensioners.

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