Eamonn Maloney (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

As a member of the transport committee, I will endeavour not to repeat some of the issues that have been debated both at the transport committee and in the intervening period since IAG's original offer. I will focus on a small number of issues. To confine myself to the two-day debate on IAG's second offer, I have noticed a tendency for many Deputies on the opposition benches to give, for want of a better word, the impression we are talking about a State asset. We are not talking about a State asset. We are talking about one private company going into enterprise with another private company, IAG. If Aer Lingus were a State company, I would have a different view on the issue. However, Aer Lingus is no longer a State company but rather a public limited company with the State, on behalf of the taxpayer, holding a 25% share in it.

There has been an attempt to create an argument based on Aer Lingus's image since its foundation in 1936 and the attachment to it. However, all of that changed when Aer Lingus was floated on the stock exchange in October 2006 by those in the benches opposite. That is its history. I am not one to rush to the defence of Fianna Fáil but, interestingly, the Irish people clearly have an affinity with free enterprise and capitalism because following the flotation of Aer Lingus on the stock exchange, Fianna Fáil scarcely lost any support in the 2007 general election. Some of those who sit behind Deputies Martin and O'Dea and condemn Fianna Fáil for privatising Aer Lingus should have used the opportunity, if they had such a hang-up about Aer Lingus being privatised, to move a motion to bring it back under State control but there was no such motion.

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