Sinn Fein today staged a protest outside the Dail over the privatisation of Aer Lingus ahead of a parliamentary debate on the issue tonight.
The Cabinet agreed in principle last week to sell a majority stake in the national airline to allow it to raise equity to boost its fleet.
Today Sinn Fein TDs and councillors held a demo outside the Dail's front gates on Kildare Street to promote the party's two-day Private Members' Motion on the issue beginning tonight.
Dublin South West TD Sean Crowe described the sell-off move as scandalous and claimed it would have huge implications for the Aer Lingus workforce and their families.
He said: "As an island economy, heavily dependent on exports as well as tourism, the retention of a state airline, especially a profitable one, is not only crucially important but also entirely logical. It deserves and full and open debate."
Mr Crowe said no rational argument had been put forward for the privatisation of Aer Lingus "other than to satisfy the insatiable demands of the privatisation lobby within both Government parties and their financiers in the private sector."
The party's Dail motion calls on the Government to recognise the enormous contribution made by the airline to the Irish economy and insists it should remain in public ownership as a vital strategic element of Ireland's infrastructure.
Mr Crowe called on the Government to retain the national airline Aer Lingus in State ownership to secure its future.
The Sinn Fein motion also demands that Dublin, Cork and Shannon Airports and the regional airports remain part of an integrated all-Ireland transport