Ahern opens Cabinet rift with attack on airline chiefs

THE widening rift between the Coalition partners over Aer Lingus was exacerbated yesterday when Taoiseach Bertie Ahern launched an attack on the airline’s departing management team.

The Taoiseach, in an outspoken Dáil contribution, severely criticised the airline’s top management - including outgoing chief executive Willie Walsh - for claiming all the credit for the turnaround of the airline after the September 11 atrocity while ignoring the role of the unions.

He also seemed to empathise with union suspicion of Mr Walsh’s management buyout (MBO) proposal earlier this summer.