Opposition blames O'Rourke for Aer Lingus crisis

The Government and Minster for Public Enterprise Mrs Mary O’Rourke are directly responsible for the crisis at Aer Lingus, a SIPTU meeting in Dublin was told today.

Speakers from a number of Opposition parties - including Labour, Sinn Féin and the Green Party - told the meeting at Liberty Hall privatisation was not the solution to the company’s problems.

Labour TD for Dublin North Mr Sean Ryan described Mrs O’Rourke’s handling of the company as "inept" and claimed she had undermined morale of both staff and management through her "determination to sell the company off".

"The situation was made infinitely worse by the ideological differences and callous attitude to State companies within the Cabinet," he said, singling out Tánaiste Ms Mary Harney and Minister for Finance Mr Charlie McCreevy.

Mr Ryan said the Government had no option but to join other European countries and lobby the EU to authorise the provision of state aid for airlines.

He said it was "ludicrous" Ireland should be prevented from helping "a vital national asset" when the US government was providing $8 billion in aid for its commercial airlines without restriction.

Sinn Féin’s Mr Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin echoed the calls for immediate State aid for the airline and an end to plans for privatising the carrier. He also claimed the crisis showed Aer Lingus was a victim of a political battle within the Government.

"It is torn between the privatisation agenda of Ministers Harney and McCreevy and the fear of the political consequences of privatisation on the part of Fianna Fáil," he said.

Green Party spokesman on Public Enterprise Mr Trevor Sargent, TD for North Dublin, repeated his calls for an emergency Dáil debate on the crisis. He also called for immediate provision of state aid for Aer Lingus.

The seminar, which was arranged some time ago, was originally intended to debate the future structure of Aer Lingus. But this changed after the company recently announced it would scale down its operations by up to 25 per cent with 1,700 potential job losses.

SIPTU and IMPACT, who represent the majority of workers at Aer Lingus, held emergency meetings with Mrs O’Rourke yesterday. These were described as "positive" by union and government officials.