Taoiseach says Aer Lingus sale will create jobs and is backed by airports

Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports have backed the sale of Aer Lingus as being good for Ireland, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said in a strong defence of the sale of the national airline.

Mr Kenny said the sale would result in job creation, new routes and the Minister for Finance would have a veto over the sale of the valuable Heathrow slots under the deal with IAG, owners of British Airways and Iberian.

But during leaders’ questions in the Dáil, the Taoiseach acknowledged he had not read an internal Aer Lingus document, the Nyaris report, on the impact of the proposed sale. “I did not see the report you refer to. Neither did the Minister for Transport.”

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin and Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams highlighted details of the report which warned of significant cuts of up to 40 per cent in ground staff jobs and in catering employment.

Mr Martin said to Mr Kenny: “This is what Aer Lingus and IAG are cooking up and you haven’t been told about it”.

But the Taoiseach reminded the Fianna Fáil leader of his party’s decision in government to privatise Aer Lingus in 2006, following which the Heathrow slots moved from Shannon to Belfast without any Government control. But the Minister for Finance now had a veto on the sale of the Heathrow slots.

Fianna Fáil transport spokesman Timmy Dooley intervened several times to ask: "Taoiseach, can you confirm the word veto?"

The Sinn Féin leader claimed Aer Lingus “has been shamefully sabotaged by you and your Government” and had handed over the national airline “lock, stock and barrel to a multinational”.

He said that "once Aer Lingus is gone it's gone" and that when IAG took over the Spanish carrier Iberia, 4500 jobs were cut.

In an impassioned critique of the sale Independent Socialist and former Aer Lingus employee Clare Daly pointed to the 15,000 deferred pension holders who had suffered pension cuts and they could only come to the conclusion that the manoeuvring around that scheme to "get that out of the way so you could get what you wanted all along".

She said the Government was selling for € 1.3 billion a company that had almost € 1 billion in cash reserves, Heathrow slots worth € 500 million and all its attendant buildings and airport properties.

Ms Daly said that one million passengers in Britain were transited to the US through Dublin airport and this was part of the benefits of the sale to corporate shareholders in Europe and the Middle East.

Mr Kenny insisted new jobs would be created and four new routes to the US were going ahead and he was hopeful that Ireland would benefit from the sale. Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports had backed the sale as good for the country, he said.