Majority of voters against sale of State share in Aer Lingus

A decisive majority of voters are opposed to the sale of the state's shareholding in Aer Lingus, according to the latest Irish Times Ipsos MRBI poll.

Asked if they thought the Government should agree to the sale, 24 per cent of voters said yes, 54 per cent said no and 22 per cent had no opinion.

Fine Gael voters are most strongly in favour of the sale, with 33 per cent of them supporting the disposal of the State’s stake – but 50 per cent of them are opposed to the sale.

Supporters of other parties are more strongly opposed to the sale with 54 per cent of Labour supporters, 58 per cent of Independent voters, 62 per cent of Sinn Féin voters and 66 per cent of Fianna Fáil voters opposed.

The fact that Fianna Fáil voters are most opposed to the sale of the State’s remaining 25 per cent share in the company is ironic given that the privatisation of the company, involving the disposal of 75 per cent of the State’s stake, took place when the party was in power.

There are some differences in attitude across the social classes, with the best off AB voters much more strongly in favour of the sale than other categories while the poorest DE category is most opposed.

There is no great variation in regional terms with clear majorities against the sale in all parts of the country.

Gender

However, there is an interesting difference in the attitudes of men and women with women far more strongly opposed to the sale.

In age terms the youngest 18 to 24 cohort are most opposed to the sale, but a substantial majority in all age groups is opposed.

The survey was carried out on Monday and Tuesday this week among a representative sample of 1,200 voters aged 18 and over, in face-to-face interviews at 100 sampling points in all constituencies.

The margin of error is plus or minus 2.8 per cent.

It has emerged that Virgin Atlantic is set to raise its concerns with the European Commission next week about the possible sale of Aer Lingus to the International Airlines Group.

The Oireachtas transport committee will decide in the coming days if it will allow the airline to make its case to the committee in Leinster House.

Virgin has written to an Oireachtas committee for the second time in a week in response to a request for information from the transport committee.

Virgin said it wanted legally binding commitments on the number of Aer Lingus and BA flights from Ireland to the UK.

It is calling on the commission to make sure it can continue to compete with BA for Aer Lingus passengers connecting to long haul flights from the UK.