Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

First, the opportunities for this country arising from the further expansion, growth and development of Aer Lingus, including the promised significant expansion in the number of people employed by the company, are very solid. As Deputy Dooley will be aware, this is particularly important in areas like the mid-west and we expect to see continued strong growth in tourism into Ireland. It is vitally important that we get more aviation capacity into Ireland right now. At the core of the proposal for Aer Lingus is to expand business, have more flights and honour commitments on existing flights and services, not just with regard to Dublin but also to Shannon and Cork airports. All of this provides a strong basis for further growth in employment directly in Aer Lingus, as has been indicated by the chief executive.

The report to which the Deputy referred is an internal report in a company that he just acknowledged his party privatised. It is a private company. It would not be common that Departments or even the Cabinet would get detailed ongoing management reports in private companies. The key issue in that report from the extracts I have seen is that 90% of the business referenced in the report is business that is already contracted by Aer Lingus abroad and not in this country. So it has no impact on or inference for employment in Aer Lingus in Ireland.

As the company has committed, it plans to have significant additional employment next year. Nyras is a consultancy company, as I understand it, engaged by Aer Lingus to carry out a confidential analysis of the airline's cost structure. I listened to Mr. Kavanagh, I think on RTE, this morning. He pointed out that the items that were being examined in the report to which the Deputy referred relate to business of the company that is already provided by providers outside Ireland.

I reiterate that there are no implications in this report other than that the company, Aer Lingus, as the Deputy said himself, must like all companies in the aviation business strive constantly for efficiency. One particular individual who has been forgotten in all this is the consumer and customer of airline services based in Ireland.

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