The Minister for Education and Science, Ms Hanafin, confirmed on RTÉ last night that a decision on the future of Aer Lingus would be made before Christmas.
Aer Lingus chief executive Mr Willie Walsh said yesterday he had detected "growing unease" at the direction in which he and his management had brought the airline.
He said on RTÉ Radio's This Weekprogramme that his decision of last week to resign was "final" and would not be changed.
The Labour Party leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, told a Siptu regional conference in Waterford that privatising Aer Lingus could result in a repeat of what had happened to Eircom.
He said Eircom had been been a strong semi-state company, providing an essential utility to the Irish economy.
Following an "extraordinary sequence of changes in ownership", it was now a much depleted company, with no presence in the mobile phone market, considerably higher debts and obligations to pay dividends, he said.
Mr Rabbitte proposed that Aer Lingus and other commercial semi-state companies should be transferred into the ownership of a new State holding company that could take in private capital.
He proposed the company would take responsibility for the development of each company with the private sector investing no more than 49 per cent in the company.