Dempsey 'powerless' if Aer Lingus ends other services

Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey and his department would be virtually powerless to intervene if Aer Lingus chose to axe services from Cork or Dublin airports, the secretary general of the Department of Transport said yesterday.

Giving evidence before the Oireachtas Committee yesterday, Julie O'Neill said she regretted not briefing Mr Dempsey on the possible ending of the Aer Lingus service to Shannon, at their first meeting last July.

Ms O'Neill said that while she recognised the importance of the issue, she had been assured from contacts with Aer Lingus chairman John Sharman that it was "not decided and certainly not imminent".

However, Ms O'Neill, who was accused by Fine Gael transport spokesman Fergus O'Dowd of taking part in a "cover up", said even if she had told Mr Dempsey, he had no power to prevent Aer Lingus' decision.

Ms O'Neill said that if the question was did she regret she had not told the Minister, the answer was "yes I do", but she added: "Do I believe, if I had, it would have made a blind bit of difference to the outcome? I do not".

Asked by Fine Gael TD Paul Connaughton if she believed she had been "sold a pup by John Sharman", Ms O'Neill said she had always found Mr Sharman to be straightforward and honest in his dealings with her. She told the committee she believed Mr Sharman when he said the Government's concerns would be taken on board and that the decision was not imminent.

However, she said she had thought the executive of Aer Lingus would "come back to the board and I thought I was going to be informed" before a final decision was made.

Ms O'Neill said the decision to privatise Aer Lingus meant it had to go to the market to raise its capital and make its own decisions. "Can I give an undertaking that the same thing couldn't happen to Dublin and Cork? I can't frankly," she said.

Fine Gael TD Pat Breen said the department seemed to be concerned about the Aer Lingus decision in mid-July with the arrival of the new minister - five months after two Irish Times reports indicated Aer Lingus was thinking of setting up a Belfast hub.