Top executives from multinational companies in Ireland are to be appointed to key positions on the new boards to run Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports.
The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, has had discussions with US multinationals, including Dell, Intel and Analog Devices. The Minister is keen to recruit high-calibre executives to fill places on the designate boards.
"We need to get the very best people that we can. And we need to get people who have a vested interest in seeing the airports prosper," a source close to the Minister said.
Mr Brennan's determination will be warmly greeted by the major business interests.
In its submission to the Minister earlier this year, the Cork Chamber of Commerce called for "a board composed of individuals with backgrounds in business and finance, as well as other local representatives".
"The first boards of the airports will have a unique role to play, a role that will not fall to any subsequent board," the Limerick chamber's aviation spokesman, Mr Tadhg Kearney said.
"They will have to lay the strategic foundations of the new companies. They will have to build credibility with the workers, the airlines.
"They are to be independent boards, not regional boards. They are to be boards of national companies. People should be drawn from whatever region, or internationally, if necessary. We got the very strong sense from the Minister and from officials in his Department that they wanted to do this properly, or not at all," said Mr Kearney, who is also chairman of the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland's Air Transport Users Council.
Chris Dooley adds: Union leaders hope that talks planned for tomorrow with the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, will provide the basis for further discussions on the future of Aer Rianta.
A 10-point plan prepared by SIPTU, calling for a "meaningful process of engagement" to be chaired by an independent person, has been accepted by the other Aer Rianta unions. This will be presented to Mr Brennan tomorrow in the hope that it can form the basis for negotiations.
Union officials accept that Mr Brennan is not likely to agree to a review of his decision to break up the airports company.
Instead, they intend to ask the Minister to demonstrate how he can deliver on assurances that no worker's pay or conditions will be detrimentally affected by the break-up.
A union source stressed last night, however, that this did not mean that the break-up had been accepted by the unions as a fait accompli.
Union leaders are convinced that Mr Brennan will be unable to show that Shannon Airport can thrive in the absence of both the Shannon stopover and the support of Aer Rianta. This would have implications for staff at the airport and pay and conditions.
