Ahern asks for urgent Aer Lingus impact study

AN Taoiseach Bertie Ahern yesterday made a dramatic intervention in the crisis in the mid-west region caused by Aer Lingus’s ending of its Shannon to Heathrow service.

Mr Ahern, who is due to return from holiday tomorrow, asked a group of senior officials at the weekend to urgently examine the ramifications of the Aer Lingus decision.

In what amounted to his first public involvement in the controversy, Mr Ahern said he wants the officials to evaluate the impact of the transfer of Heathrow slots from Shannon Airport to Belfast.

In a statement issued last night, Mr Ahern made it clear that his own department officials would take the lead in a group that will report back to the Cabinet Committee on Housing, Infrastructure and PPPs.

A Government spokes- man said last night that the work would be undertaken as a matter of urgency and that the officials would be reporting back to the Taoiseach “within weeks”.

The statement specifies three specific areas of examination:

* What options are available to support connectivity to Shannon Airport?

* An examination of the level of investment made in the Shannon region by the National Development Plan and Transport 21.

* What impact have the recent developments had on aviation connectivity for companies? This study will be carried out by enterprise and development agencies including Forfás.

The decisive, if belated, intervention by the Taoiseach gives an indication of a determined Government drive to recover the initiative in a crisis that has worsened in the fortnight since the controversy first erupted.

At the same time, the wording of the statement is a further acknowledgment by the Taoiseach and Government that it is not going to interfere with, or try to reverse, the decision taken by chief executive Dermot Mannion and the airline management.

The Government now accepts that the slot transfer to Belfast is a “done deal” and that the task now is to reassure business and tourist interests in the mid- west that the region won’t suffer as a result.

Ministers also need to allay the concerns and anger of Fianna Fáil public representatives in the areas, including 100 councillors, a dozen TDs and three ministers, including Defence Minister Willie O’Dea.

This exercise may also inform the Government’s attitude going into the EGM, expected to be held next month.

The intervention came soon after the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Éamon Ó Cuív strongly dismissed a report that he has “defected” from the Cabinet position on the ending of the Shannon-Heathrow flight.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio this morning, Mr Ó Cuív rejected a report in the Sunday Independent that he was one of three Cabinet “rebels” who wanted the Government to intervene and reverse the Aer Lingus decision.

Accepting he was dismayed at the Aer Lingus decision when he first heard, Mr Ó Cúiv said he supported Transport Minister Noel Dempsey who said the Government would not intervene.

Mr Ó Cúiv also admitted that the Cabinet did not foresee that Aer Lingus would drop the Shannon to Heathrow service when it was discussing the flotation of the former State airline.