A second company has expressed an interest in TEAM Aer Lingus, the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, announced yesterday. She told the Dail that the Department was contacted last Friday by Mr Ulick McEvaddy, "who indicated that his company may be interested in TEAM Aer Lingus".
Ten days ago almost 60 per cent of TEAM workers rejected an offer to surrender their letters of guarantee from Aer Lingus in advance of a buy-out by the Danish conglomerate FLS Aviation.
Ms O'Rourke told deputies that Mr McEvaddy said he would give further consideration to this idea and would contact the Department again on the matter this week. "It remains to be seen whether and how Mr McEvaddy follows up on this approach," she said.
Mr Ivan Yates (FG) asked what the current state of play was with regard to the FLS proposed purchase of TEAM and what proposals she had received from the board of management.
The Minister said she planned to have discussions with FLS shortly. There was a suggested timespan of four to six weeks for the acquisition by FLS. She had had talks on Tuesday with the executive chairman of Aer Lingus and had not yet received any proposals from the Aer Lingus board. "I cannot predict when the process will be completed and a Government decision required. I believe that the issues should be addressed with urgency, but in a calm atmosphere."
Mr Yates asked what level of vote by the unions she would accept as sufficient for a deal. Ms O'Rourke replied: "I have not attempted to put precise statistical parameters on what might represent workforce concurrence to any deal, as I think to do so would be unhelpful."
Mr Emmet Stagg (Lab, Kildare North) said the Minister's "belated" hands-on approach to TEAM was welcome. He referred to figures suggesting the maintenance bill for the Aer Lingus fleet was currently £28 million and would rise to £65 million when the company completed the purchase of its new fleet.
That represented 75 per cent of TEAM's capacity and he suggested that it would be "madness to get rid of TEAM" when Aer Lingus would have to buy in that maintenance service at a higher price.
Ms O'Rourke said she did not have those precise figures but she had put that question to the Aer Lingus chairman when she had consultations with him on Tuesday and had been told that when there was a new fleet it would not require the heavy maintenance that an older fleet would need.
The Minister reiterated that she could not guarantee employment for life to TEAM's 1,500 employees.