Aer Lingus cuts ‘vital’ for survival

AER Lingus is at the most critical juncture in its history and the planned cost cutting measures must be achieved, according to Aer Lingus board member Leslie Buckley.

He also said the country is facing a critical situation.

“We need to save €4 billion in the December budget, followed by another €4bn next year and we just have to do it,” he said.

He said it is sad to see the divide between the public and the private sector.

“The cost of the public sector has to be reduced. Looking at the public sector and seeing that there’s only a third in the frontline, there has to be something wrong there. Now is the time to do something about it, and in two years’ time we’ll have a much leaner Ireland Inc.

“Now is the time for the Government to show strong leadership,” he said.

Cork-born Mr Buckley is a government nominee on the Aer Lingus board and bought 65,000 shares in the airline, for the first time at a cost of €50,700 earlier this year.

Last month the airline announced it was planning to cut 676 jobs to save €97m before the end of 2011. However, this week it was warned that more redundancies may be needed if these cost cuts are to be achieved.

Mr Buckley was in Cork yesterday to attend a fundraising lunch for his house building charity, Haven. He is a founding director, along with Denis O’Brien, of the Digicel international telecommunications group.

Mr O’Brien has appointed Mr Buckley to the board of Independent News and Media (INM). However, he refused to comment on INM yesterday, as did Mr O’Brien.

Mr O’Brien said, however, now is the time to really mind businesses and pay a lot of attention to detail.

He said he’s delighted with the way Newstalk is developing, adding that it is becoming a “very forceful” competitor to RTÉ.

Both Mr Buckley and Mr O’Brien are directors of Haven, which is a charity set up by Mr Buckley and his wife, Carmel, with the aim of building houses in poverty stricken Haiti.

The charity’s first Build It Week took place last month when 260 volunteers from all over Ireland travelled to Haiti for a week and built 40 houses for the locals.

Mr O’Brien said he wasn’t able to go on the Haven Build It Week because it clashed with mid-term break but said he’s sure at some stage he will be going, probably in 2010. Haven has increased the amount of money needed to take part on the trip by 10%, to €4,500.

Mr Buckley said he would encourage celebrities to go on the trips next year.

He said there were a number of celebrities they would like to have on board but they have yet to approach them. Haven will be running two volunteer trips to Haiti next year, in April and October.