Government intervention in the growing row over Aer Lingus's plan to discontinue its Shannon to Heathrow route has been ruled out by Clare-based Minister of State Tony Killeen.
A statement issued by Mr Killeen yesterday said it was "expected" that Aer Lingus would announce today "that the ending of the Shannon-Heathrow link will coincide with a new service between Heathrow and Belfast International Airport".
Aer Lingus management is due to brief unions today, and is later scheduled to make an announcement in the North about services out of Belfast.
Mr Killeen, who has responsibility for environment and energy, said that although the Government was a shareholder, Aer Lingus was now a publicly quoted company. "Even if it were still in State ownership, I do not think it [discontinuing the Shannon-Heathrow route] would come before the Cabinet.
"There is a general principle that if you instruct, or persuade, or force a company to make a decision on grounds other than commercial, you are pretty much expected to pick up the tab."
He expressed surprise and concern at the move. "There is an immediate impact for the members of the workforce affected. If you are offered redployment to Cork, Dublin or Belfast, and you are based in Clare or Limerick, that is not redeployment, but relocation."
Mr Killeen said he had contacted Minister of State for Labour Affairs Billy Kelleher to ensure that the labour relations' machinery was available to deal with the fallout from the decision. "Quite frankly, I want to ensure that workers are not blackguarded."
Mr Killeen said Shannon-Heathrow was the service business people from the west, particularly Galway, used for onward connections to the rest of Europe and elsewhere. "I do not think I ever saw 10 empty seats in a Heathrow flight." He said that there were also implications for the tourism industry.
Independent MEP Marian Harkin accused the Government of being "complicit" in the decision on two levels.
"By privatising Aer Lingus they knew that regional services would be under greater threat as a result of the primary focus of a private company on profit, with no concern for factors such as balanced regional development.
"They are also complicit in acting as a 'silent partner' which placed great importance on retaining a 25 per cent share in Aer Lingus, but refuses to use this major shareholding to influence vital decisions such as the removal of services from Shannon. The prospects for Shannon and Galway to compete for foreign direct investment would be further seriously eroded by the Aer Lingus decision and the Government's complicity revealed again the hollowness of its national spatial strategy and regional balance policies", Ms Harkin said.
