Aer Lingus management will be asked to explain its decision to cease taking unaccompanied child passengers at next week's Oireachtas Committee on Transport.
The committee's chairman, Mr Eoin Ryan TD (Fianna Fáil), said the move by the national carrier had angered many people and would inconvenience thousands of families.
"I will ask Aer Lingus management to explain in detail why it has decided to stop carrying unaccompanied children under 12 from February 1st.
"The committee is determined to get a proper and full explanation from company management," Mr Ryan said.
Aer Lingus's director of corporate affairs, Mr Dan Loughrey, yesterday said he was unaware that the chairman had issued a statement about the decision on unaccompanied children.
Next Tuesday's meeting of the committee had been scheduled a while ago.
"The meeting is a normal event in terms of a review of the business and Aer Lingus management will be there. The committee members usually raise a wide range of issues," Mr Loughrey said.
The change in the airline's policy on children was criticised yesterday by the Minister of State for Health and Children, Mr Brian Lenihan (FF). He said the decision could cause considerable hardship to many families.
"This was an invaluable service in cases where one parent works or lives outside of Ireland or where a child needed to travel unaccompanied for other family reasons," he said.
The first goal of the National Children's Strategy stated that children would have a voice in issues that concerned them, he said. A central aspect of giving children a voice in the strategy was ensuring that children were provided with opportunities to participate in civic life.
He said he would be asking the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, to obtain a report on the matter.
Aer Lingus in announcing the move said that the decision was taken in the interest of the safety and security of children in a changing environment where airports were becoming more congested with a greater number of people availing of air travel.
A spokeswoman said it was not a cost issue.
She said the last thing the airline wanted to do was scaremonger but they felt they could no longer guarantee the safety of children travelling unaccompanied.
Until now, Aer Lingus provided a free service for about 150 unaccompanied minors on average a day. The decision will affect other airlines which fly out of Ireland using Aer Lingus aircraft under "code-share" arrangements.
Airlines including KLM and British Airways are expected to terminate their services for unaccompanied minors on their code-share routes.