Oireachtas body to investigate Aer Lingus sale

The chances of a quick decision on the sale of Aer Lingus have diminished with a key Oireachtas committee announcing its own investigation into the privatisation process.

Hearings into the sale by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport are expected to start on April 6th. Interested parties, unions and possibly some academics are likely to be called before the members to argue the case for and against privatisation.

An advertisement in the national papers calling for submissions is expected to be published next week. Siptu, the largest union at Aer Lingus and a trenchant opponent of the sale, welcomed the decision last night.

Aer Lingus chief executive Dermot Mannion warned recently about the need for a final decision before the end of March in order for a sale to go ahead in June. It now looks increasingly like that this timetable will be missed - there is only one remaining Cabinet meeting in March.

The committee, which is chaired by Fianna Fáil TD John Ellis, is also going to seek legal advice from the Attorney General's office on the issue of landing slots at Heathrow Airport. Opposition politicians are anxious that these are protected and that any future Aer Lingus board would not be allowed to sell them to another carrier.

Mr Ellis said after getting the Attorney General's opinion that it might be necessary to get another legal opinion about how the slots could be protected.

A member of the committee, Olivia Mitchell TD, said the decision to hold hearings into the sale could be a dangerous one, even though everyone wanted a transparent debate. "Protracted hearings will give the Government an excuse to procrastinate further," she remarked.

"We are giving them a perfect excuse to put off a decision." She said the time schedule for a sale was already tight and the airline deserved some clarity on its future direction. She said there was a danger of sacrificing the whole airline for the sake of consultation.

A motion calling for an inquiry into the privatisation was proposed by Labour Party TD Róisín Shorthall and seconded by independent TD Seamus Healy. Several Fianna Fáil members also agreed with the idea. Ms Shorthall said there had been a "headlong rush" into the sale of the airline and it was time to examine its impact on the country and the travelling public.

She said if the airline needed funds it could borrow the money, it could accept State investment or it could lease its new aircraft. She said there was no reason for a privatisation of a profitable airline and any funding gaps could be met by the Exchequer.

"If it's a good investment for the private sector, it's a good investment for the public sector," she said. She said EU rules only prevented Government bail-outs, but not investments that would be made by any normal investor.

Siptu for its part said it was not encouraged by comments from Aer Lingus that a "golden share" retained by the Government would secure the national interest. "There is a doubt about how effective the retention of any blocking share by the Government will be. The Government's own consultants, Goldman Sachs, have given the opinion that any such arrangement would require EU approval and, in any event, an IPO process could still lead to the exit of the state interest altogether, as happened in eircom," it said.