Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is there to arbitrate, mediate and come up with solutions to very important things and to bring about industrial peace. The Deputy may not be a fan of industrial peace. I place quite a significant value on it. I thank the Deputy for his intervention today.

I know how upsetting this dispute is to people. That is what I think is utterly reprehensible about this, and I say that without casting a view on whether it is the pilots or Aer Lingus. There are always two sides to any dispute; I am very aware of that. Everyone is entitled to have a dispute and everyone is entitled to put in a pay claim but people are entitled to go on their holidays too. There are parents, including in the Deputy’s constituency, who set aside a few bob to go on holiday with their kids and who are now anxiously checking their social media feeds and websites to find out if that holiday can go ahead. I feel for them. It is their side that I am on. It is the side of the travelling public and the people in the Deputy’s constituency who might own a hotel, bed and breakfast, restaurant or café and who are hoping for and relying on tourists coming in over the coming weeks to help them get through what can be a long winter. That is the side we should be on in this House, not deciding to be divisive or to pit one group against the other, but to speak up for our own citizens who are trying to go on holiday and go about their business. There are people in this country in the tourism sector which is particularly dependent.

The Government’s position has been crystal clear. We want to see meaningful engagement. I do not think there has ever been an industrial relations dispute that has been resolved without two things - engagement and compromise.

They are always the ingredients to any solution to any dispute. The question for both parties is whether they wish to do that now and save everybody the pain, the agony, the hassle and the economic impact, or whether they wish to drag this thing out and then end up doing it anyway. There is absolutely no doubt but there will be engagement and compromise; that is how industrial relations dispute are solved. I hope the Deputy will agree with me that the most important thing tomorrow is for both parties to attend the Labour Court in good faith, to engage in the process in a real and meaningful way, to be respectful of the role of the Labour Court, which I am not sure the Deputy was, and to sort this out. Both parties need to stay there as long as it takes until they sort it out. I say to both parties that there needs to be a willingness to compromise and to engage. I very much welcome the fact that parties have agreed to attend together at the Labour Court tomorrow. I thank the Labour Court for the intensive work it has done in the background on this in recent days, and I really hope this can help put the matter on a pathway to resolution before there is any further upset or damage caused to the travelling public or to the Irish economy.

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