Part of Aer Lingus will be sold to secure future - Ahern

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern reiterated that part of Aer Lingus will be sold to allow the airline to expand, during heated exchanges with Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins.

Mr Ahern said the Government would "continue with the plans for the terminal and the other initiatives necessary for Dublin airport to deal with 30 million passengers and to allow for the development, securing and safeguarding of Aer Lingus into the future".

Mr Higgins claimed that "the sharks in the financial markets" were pushing for the early privatisation of Aer Lingus. "The Government took a decision in principle last year that it would privatise the company and leave an island nation without a publicly-owned air transport vehicle, which many saw as a strategic interest.

"What is the Government's position? Will it shamefully hand the national airline and its staff to transnational corporations whose only agenda is the maximisation of profit?"

Accusing the Taoiseach of not answering his questions, Mr Higgins said that "judging by newspaper articles I read recently, the staff at the National Museum got more information out of Clonycavan man, and the poor man was dead for 2,000 years in a bog, than the Taoiseach has provided today".

Mr Ahern said it had been stated time and again that the Government would maintain a strategic interest in Aer Lingus. "We have stated that we will allow an equity injection which means a sale of a proportion of Aer Lingus. This will be decided following the consultant's advice in the area. The purpose of this is to prevent what happened in 1993 and some four or five years ago, when Aer Lingus nearly went down the tubes. Deputy Higgins must stop trying to close the national airline."

Mr Ahern said the Government wanted to secure Aer Lingus, the staff, jobs, and help to develop the airline, including new long-haul routes to Thailand, Singapore and Bahrain.