Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have an opportunity to speak on this important issue. Reference was made to the Labour eight. I am among the Fine Gael ten who have equal and genuine concerns about the future of Aer Lingus. In fact, we have aired these concerns and brought them to the attention of the Minister, as have my colleagues in the Labour Party. We were correct to do so. This is a major issue and concerns us all. It concerns the workforce in Aer Lingus and the future of the company. It concerns Irish aeronautics and the possibility of this country expanding as a major international aviation hub. That opportunity does arise but does not arise other than through this particular route, although it was much talked about in the past.

That was one of the measures I identified by way of parliamentary question as being desirable in the context of the disposal of the Government's share in Aer Lingus.

I am impressed by the genuine concerns expressed by Members in the House in the past 24 hours or so. They have a genuine reason for expressing these views and have the best interests of the company, the workforce and the country at heart. This applies to those affected in Cork, Shannon and Dublin airports. An important point to come out of the debate is that we will continue to have the shamrock flying internationally across the globe. That is positive. We have received a clear indication that extra jobs will be created. There are genuine concerns about the possibility of job losses, but we must take the agreements on their merits and at face value. It is not a good idea to enter into negotiations presuming the outcome will be negative. It is not a good idea to sign an agreement or have somebody else sign one and say we are signing it but we do not think the other party will stick to it. That is a recipe for disaster.

What really takes me to the fair is the tear-jerking concern expressed in the past two days by the quarter of the House that expresses genuine concern and sympathy for the Labour Party. It could not care less. There is only one thing those Members have in mind and that is how they can cause a crisis and drag it out over the next fortnight or three weeks and to disturb something in the woodwork. That is what they are hoping for. They have no concern for the country or the future of Aer Lingus, which is the most important aspect. It was particularly cynical of the Leader of the Opposition to chase after the genuinely held concerns of a member of the Labour Party to try to push him over the edge because that is what it was all about. There are genuine concerns in the minds of many here and they have every right to express them. The issue is serious because we do not have much to play with. We must remember that we have a 25% shareholding, the legacy of those sitting in on the Opposition benches, as Deputy Brian Stanley rightly pointed out. The criticism being levelled in this direction falls flat when one thinks of what happened in the case of Greencore. Not only was no attempt made to do anything about it, every attempt was made to facilitate the closure of the sugar industry to supposedly improve the lot of genuine sugar producers elsewhere in the world. That was proved to be a load of rubbish.

What really takes me to the fair is the degree to which the Members on the other side of the House divest themselves of all responsibility for selling 75% of the shareholding in Aer Lingus without anybody telling them that it was a good thing to do. They thought they had to get rid of it quickly because it might drop in value, which would have been terrible. It could have been politically embarrassing. That was the only reason it was done; there was no other reason. The people who took the decisions had no concern whatsoever for the workforce in Aer Lingus. The only time they expressed concern about them was at election time. That was the end of it.

The deal on the table is as good as what can be achieved. It offers great potential for the expansion of Aer Lingus and an increase in the workforce in the future and I expect it to deliver. This is the genuine concern expressed by those near the coal face.

I am concerned about the health of some Members who have spoken in the past 12 or 14 hours. I have seen many Pauline conversions in the House, but last night I saw a Member speak as if he was a recent convert to Marxism. In fact, Karl Marx himself would not have expressed greater concern about this proposal. To make matters worse, I am sure it was a genuine mid-life political crisis. It could not have been anything else because some of the Members concerned have been known hard-line right-wing promoters of a completely different ideology during my time in the House and for a considerably longer time. I am genuinely concerned about them as they are experiencing a crisis which I know has everything to do with politics and nothing to do with expressing a genuine concern for people. It has nothing to do either with the future of Aer Lingus, other than using it as a political football for the sake of opportunism.

There is a genuine possibility for the development of this country as an international aviation hub. It has huge prospects and there is all to play for. If it cannot be done, it will not be for the lack of effort. That commitment should be across the board and on all sides of the House. The nationalism and patriotism in which we take so much pride and we will see next year behove all of us to recognise that the national interest is at stake. I am sorry for the gang on the other side of the House, with their hand-wringing, knee-jerking, tear-jerking, tearing out of hair and beating of breasts. I can recommend to them a good practitioner who could deal with that problem because there is grave danger that they will begin to believe what they are saying themselves. What is most dangerous about political propaganda is when those who express it are so committed to it that they begin to believe it. It is when they begin to believe it that a serious problem emerges.

I can assure Members on the other side of the House that the agreement reached is the best that can be achieved. I compliment the Minister and the Minister for State at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Gerald Nash, on their efforts in bringing the ship ashore. Flights will continue to land as a result of this agreement and the airlines involved will expand their facilities and services to incude far more regions than have been envisaged so far. We expect this to happen and have a right to expect it to happen as a result of the agreement. I congratulate the Minister and the Minister of State on sticking with it. We should remember that we were treated to a series of crises in the past two months about whether the Government would sell and Labour Party backbenchers would be able to stand for it. We know that Fine Gael always believes in selling everything. I could write the script. Members opposite should cease making telephone calls in the middle of night to those whom they think might be wobbling on this side of the House. We are not for wobbling.

We wish all those involved in the agreement every success and expect it to deliver. We are concerned about the sorrow expressed and the disappointment of Members on the opposite side of the House. We know that they are disappointed, but the agreement is a manifestation of a quote from George Bernard Shaw:

You see things; and you say "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say "Why not?

See this speech in context