O'Rourke in EU funding warning on Aer Lingus

The Minister for Public Enterprise, Mrs O'Rourke, has warned about the difficulties facing the Government in obtaining EU approval for funding for Aer Lingus.

"Let me be perfectly clear - we face an extremely challenging task in obtaining approval from the Commission to provide assistance in any form to Aer Lingus, but I will be working with the company to make the best possible case for securing the future of the airline."

She would, she added, seek Cabinet approval in principle next week for exchequer funding, covering redundancy payments and working capital, for the airline.

"I cannot indicate at this stage what recommendations I will make to the Government on the funding requirements. This will be a matter for the Government to decide.

"In addition, whatever is decided by Government will be subject to agreement by the European Commission and, critically, subject to the full agreement within the airline that the survival plan be implemented rapidly."

Speaking during a special debate on the future of the airline, Mrs O'Rourke repeated the Government was committed to the survival of a fundamentally restructured Aer Lingus going forward and to the protection of the maximum number of sustainable jobs.

"However, that support is subject to the full and immediate implementation of the plan and approval by the European Commission." The Fine Gael spokesman on public enterprise, Mr Jim Higgins, said he was at a total loss to understand European thinking.

"The dogged intransigence of the EU Commission that rules are rules, that they are immutable and they cannot be changed, is absolutely suicidal. Contrast this with the attitude of the United States Government in terms of their determination to rescue t heir airlines." He said that the stark, uncompromising tones of the Minister were particularly disconcerting. "There is no room for manoeuvre, compromise or negotiation." The Labour public enterprise spokesman, Mr Emmet Stagg, claimed the Minister had failed and that time was short.

"It is now imperative that the Taoiseach seizes control of this issue and ensures that a rescue package, agreed over the coming days with the unions in Aer Lingus, receives EU sanction and the process of renewal can begin at the national carrier."

The leader of the Green Party, Mr Trevor Sargent, said how the EU Commission deal with the unexpected crisis in transatlantic carriers such as Aer Lingus would determine whether it was there to serve the people or if it was the people who were dispensible serving the Commission.