Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey intends to appoint two new directors to the board of Aer Lingus to ensure that all future decisions of strategic importance to the company are discussed at board level.
The Government, which owns 25.3 per cent of Aer Lingus, has the power to appoint three directors to the board, but to date it has only appointed one.
The involvement of three State-appointed directors will not enable them to block future slot transfers on the lines of the Shannon-Heathrow decision.
However, they will be able to ensure that such decisions are fully debated at board level.
A spokeswoman for the Minister said yesterday that only one director had been appointed to date because the State directors were obliged to absent themselves from meetings at which the Ryanair bid was being discussed.
Fine Gael Limerick East TD Kieran O'Donnell said by deciding to fill the two vacant Government-appointed seats on the Aer Lingus board the Minister was acknowledging for the first time the importance of protecting Ireland's links to Heathrow.
"But Minister Dempsey is being selective by refusing to use this mechanism to protect the slots from Shannon.
"That is why Minister Willie O'Dea must use his position at Cabinet to fight to retain the Shannon routes," said Mr O'Donnell.
"His performance to date on this crucial issue suggests that Minister O'Dea carries little weight at the Cabinet table.
"He now has an opportunity to redeem his reputation in the mid-west by getting the Shannon issue on the agenda at the forthcoming extraordinary general meeting of the Aer Lingus board."
Mr O'Donnell added that Mr O'Dea must fight to retain Shannon's Heathrow slots at Cabinet level or otherwise renounce his claim to be the Minister for the mid-west.
"Shannon should be the Government's number one priority in terms of its aviation policy.
"If Fianna Fáil fails to protect the Shannon-to-Heathrow routes it will set a precedent, and could undermine the Government's ability to protect Dublin and Cork's routes to Heathrow at a future stage."
