Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The document relating to the motion on which we will be voting later this evening contains an outline of principles set out over two pages. To use an appropriate metaphor, Members are alerted to the announcement of the Order of Business by the ringing of a bell, which is similar to what happens at an airport when information on a flight is being announced. The boarding gate for flight IAG 999 is due to close at 4.42 p.m. today, but we have not packed properly.

The Government's minority shareholding - 25%, at a price of €2.50 per share - amounts to €335 million, which is a better price than the price per share obtained in respect of the 75% shareholding sold some years ago. The opportunity should have been taken to have the pensioners who built the company to what it is today exit fairly for their lifetime's work. The Minister should revisit that price and add, at least, a €150 million infusion into the pension fund. Ryanair would support this because of its potential exposure should the pension wound in respect of the deferred pensioners of Aer Lingus be reopened and it knows this. The Government has leverage with the proposed buyers. The saving of €40 million to €60 million per year in costs, as set out in the Nyras report, in the context of a ten year view, represents a figure of between €400 million and €600 million in super-expectation capital for the buyers. That is why, at a minimum, the Government owes it to the people who built the airline and presented it in its present form to do what is right and fair. For the Government which has the largest ever majority in the history of the State to bring this proposal before the House without considering this issue is pretty limp. It is gutless and not right.

The document before us should have been presented on the basis of E&OE, errors and omissions excepted. The shortest sentence in the document is: "The offer price is a cash payment of at least €2.50 per Aer Lingus share", which is shamefully raw and bald. Of course, the buyers would be prepared to pay an extra €150 million which is only 10% above the overall price to all shareholders. As stated yesterday by Deputy Sean Fleming, Aer Lingus is owned by a composite of Irish residents, Ryanair, the pilots' pension fund and the State. As the shareholding amounts to 60%, there is great cohesive negotiating strength, as IAG knows.

There is a propensity among Departments, ministerial offices and Cabinets to go around in circles, talking in hypothetical rather than business terms. The buyers will assuredly digest another €150 million. Did the Minister put forward as an opening requirement that the pension fund be uplifted by not less than €150 million? Had he done so, everything that would have followed would have been meaningful. One cannot move forward from the unresolved legacy issues, that are an open sore to past employees and their families, without tidying up the past. The potential buyers know this, too.

Those backbenchers who will be required to put on blindfolds and insert their ear plugs when the boarding gate closes at 4.42 p.m. will have missed the opportunity to board with safety on an airline which Deputy Lucinda Creighton fairly described as requiring the resources of a wider network of allegiances and alliances to deliver to the people the air transport service needed into and out of Ireland. Into the future, the aircraft will mostly be landing and staying in Dublin and other places and the staff will be largely Irish. As possession is nine-tenths of the law, we will be able to bring forward whatever regulations and legislation is required to keep it safe. If the Government does not roll up its sleeves, put its shoulders back and, with some steel in its spine, try to right the wrong of the pension raid on past employees and current and deferred pensioners, it will have done a dark day's business. The 166 Members of this House should not allow that to happen. IAG would respect us for it and would pay the price which would be only 10% of the overall price.

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