ICTU and Brennan clash again on fate of Aer Rianta

A fresh row has broken out between the Minister for Transport and the trade union movement before a crucial Cabinet meeting on Aer Rianta's future today.

In an exchange of letters, Mr Brennan and the general secretary of ICTU, Mr David Begg, clash over the way the break-up has been handled. Mr Begg tells Mr Brennan that based on an expert analysis of the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) report the break-up should not now go ahead.

As disclosed in The Irish Times on Saturday, the PWC report suggests that airport charges at Dublin Airport may have to rise by up to 50 per cent for the break-up to be effective. But Mr Brennan is determined to proceed with his plans and today will seek support for a draft Bill on the break-up. While the Tánaiste, Ms Harney is understood to be supportive, the key figure remains the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.

In a letter to Mr Begg, Mr Brennan is clear on the way forward. "I am more persuaded than ever that independent airport authorities, rather than a group structure, are the best means of addressing the disparate challenges arising for each airport," he writes.

Mr Begg in a reply written yesterday states that Mr Brennan has not given unions enough time to respond to the PWC report. Mr Begg claims the unions have not agreed to a two-week deadline for studying the report.

"The deadline of two weeks was imposed by you and was never agreed to by congress. Quite clearly our advisers will have no time to evaluate the information communicated," says his letter.

Mr Begg says confidentiality is now irrelevant in relation to the PWC report because its contents have surfaced in The Irish Times. "Whatever merit the confidentiality restrictions ever had, they are hardly relevant now given that aspects of the PWC report have been in the newspapers over the weekend."

In his letter written last Friday, Mr Brennan tells Mr Begg: "I strongly believe essential reform in the governance of the State airports cannot be delayed any longer. I believe it would be seriously remiss of all of us to permit the current circumstances of uncertainty and drift to continue any longer than is absolutely necessary".

Mr Brennan writes that he does not share the view of unions that all areas of concern have to be negotiated before legislation is finalised and published. He says he disagrees with a recent letter from SIPTU president Mr Jack O'Connor about this.

"Without getting into the specifics of earlier correspondence, and without doubting Jack O'Connor's bona fides, I do not believe that any such understanding existed and indeed I also consider that such an approach would be unworkable," he says.

Meanwhile Ryanair chief executive Mr Michael O'Leary has dismissed the reports' contents as "nonsense".

"This is a report prepared by consultants, for a group of monopolists, looking into the effects of competition upon a monopoly. It is a bit like a group of turkeys commissioning a report on Christmas," he said.