Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

At a meeting this morning of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications, the Aer Lingus CEO, Ms Lynne Embleton, was asked whether she would keep 200 Cork workers on the books for ten weeks that Cork Airport is to be closed for runway repairs in September, October and November. She replied that at the time of the decision to announce the layoffs, there was uncertainty regarding the employment wage subsidy scheme, EWSS, its continuance and what form that continuance would take. Given that there is no longer uncertainty about the EWSS, and given that it will be in place for the September to November period when Cork Airport will be shut, Ms Embleton and Aer Lingus no longer have an excuse not to keep those workers on the books.

Will the Taoiseach tell the House that the continued payment of the EWSS to Aer Lingus must now mean that plans to temporarily lay off 200 workers will be cancelled, and that the workers must remain on the books for that ten-week period?

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