Tawdry politics will put Aer Lingus into tailspin

AT TIMES last week, the coalition partners were like a divorcing couple deciding on who keeps what item of furniture. Labour wants Aer Lingus as a scalp for the election campaign trail – and the cost was forfeiting its campaign on fatal foetal abnormality.

Fine Gael needs to halt legislation for fatal foetal abnormality, even if the price is abandoning IAG’s takeover of Aer Lingus.

It was a tawdry barter where both parties lost something they once swore was sacred to them – and neither gained anything for it.

But then this tacky deal was all to do with the interests of the political parties, and Aer Lingus will pay for their self-interest.

Labour wants Aer Lingus’s shareholders (taxpayers) to foot the bill for the party’s re-election campaign by buying the votes of the airline’s staff and their families.

As the clock ticks down to an election Fine Gael, like Labour, also fears losing Aer Lingus votes, but then so too do Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin.

That is the heart of the matter: politicians will sell or sacrifice anything or anybody for a vote, and ultimately Aer Lingus and the Irish people will be the losers.

WORST of all was the gush of ignorance and arrogance in the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport questioning IAG boss Willie Walsh on Thursday. Faced with a barrage of politicians playing to a gallery in their constituencies, Willie Walsh’s training as a pilot kicked in.

He didn’t react to stupid questions dripping with disdain, but kept his composure and addressed their concerns.

Jobs in administration would be lost if IAG took over, Walsh said. But more jobs would ultimately be gained as Aer Lingus grew as part of IAG, he added.

Concessions for Cork and Limer- ick should have taken care of concerns over connectivity, and plans for Ireland to be a transatlantic hub were ignored.

Walsh is impressive: I met him some years ago when he was top dog at Aer Lingus at a time when he saw Irish politicians at their worst.

He was insulted and humiliated by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who was then in the business of sucking up to the unions and beggaring the country.

He persevered at Aer Lingus but he went on to turn around the fortunes of British Airways and become one of the most capable executives in international avia- tion. Walsh’s proposals and reassurances came as Aer Lingus’s Irish management plan to outsource catering and replace its current employees with lower-paid workers.

Politicians, workers and their unions appear to have ignored the plans to outsource jobs and cut wages in their rush to see off the IAG takeover bid.

Aer Lingus workers fear change and went through huge convulsions in recent years but the airline emerged from it all as a viable, healthy business.

The credit must go to the workers but the politicians will undo all that effort and push the airline into a tailspin.

If the Government declines IAG’s offer, the attitude of Irish politicians and trade unions will make it very difficult for anyone else to make an offer for Aer Lingus. SOME creepy guy from HSBC bank was stalking me last week, looking up my profile on LinkedIn.

I have never banked with it and don’t even know anybody who does but this manager at HSBC Banking and Markets was checking me out.

Then the penny dropped: I am a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the team that exposed the HSBC scandal.

I didn’t work on that story and am disappointed that HSBC staff tried to track me in this way. Next time maybe they should ring me or call to my door.