Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Those advocating the takeover of Aer Lingus by British Airways have appeared at the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications. I must inform the House that not one route resulted from that PR performance. All they want to do is take over an existing airline. What is the performance of British Airways from Manchester, Birmingham, Belfast, Glasgow and Edinburgh on the North Atlantic? The answer is five zeros because they operate no services on the North Atlantic. What is their performance in Irish regional airports? It is yet another five zeros. There are no services at Derry, Shannon, Cork, Kerry or Knock. People in the regions are quite right to be concerned about what is going on in this PR campaign, without any substance being conducted at all. I gather there is another session today.

There are even questions that Parliament has no right to tell aviation executives what they can do because they run the industry better. There is a strong body of literature against anti-competitive mergers in any business, however, including that one. Parliament can hold its head high on this. I looked up the Official Report of the Dáil on 27 June 1984. When legislation was then proposed by airlines to put people in jail for two years and impose a fine of £100,000 for selling airline tickets too cheaply, the rebels were Des O'Malley, Hugh Coveney, John Wilson, Liam Skelly, Pádraig Flynn and Monica Barnes. All the parties got together and said: "We don't take legislation dictated to us by airlines." When the then Fianna Fáil Party Whip was asked to put the legislation through on the nod, the formula he used in order not to be pushed in that direction read as follows: "I know the terminology here is governed by technical reasons, but the answer is 'no' for the record. However, to overcome the regulations with which we have to comply, the answer is 'yes'." That stopped the Bill no doubt because of the confusion, but we may need to do that again.

The PR campaign to end Aer Lingus as an independent airline should be resisted by all parliamentarians. We did it in 1984 and we will do it again. We will not be dictated to by the PR departments of either Aer Lingus or British Airways.