Fianna Fáil TDs under fire over Shannon vote

MID-WEST Fianna Fáil TDs were criticised yesterday for failing to force through a symbolic victory for those campaigning for the retention of the Shannon-Heathrow service.

Launching a stern rebuke of the Fianna Fáil TDs, the Shannon Atlantic Connectivity Alliance also criticised the Taoiseach for choosing to attend the National Ploughing Championships ahead of the crucial vote on Shannon.

Spokesman Michael Vaughan said people were “gravely disappointed” with the FF TDs who could have crossed the floor or abstained in order to defeat the government motion.

The motion on Shannon, which excluded the opposition’s amendments calling for the Government to use its position as 25.4% share- holder to intervene, was passed by a single vote on Thursday in one of the closest voting margins in over a decade. “If you have a Taoiseach attempting to portray that he is in touch with the local issues and understand people’s concerns, then why didn’t he do the decent thing and stand up in the Dáil and be counted,” said Mr Vaughan.

FF backbenchers rejected suggestions that they could have reversed government policy. Yesterday, Clare’s Timmy Dooley said if he had voted with Fine Gael, Labour and Sinn Féin, he would have risked being excluded from the party and prevented from finding an alternative airline.

“It would have been very easy for me to resign from Fianna Fáil during the controversy and taken the holidays which I postponed because of the Shannon crisis. I could have been a hero for a few days but I believe that in the cold light of day, people would have realised it wouldn’t have changed the situation,” he said. “Me voting against the Government would have done nothing to change government policy. It would not have forced the Government to do something they believe cannot legally be done.”

Limerick West’s John Cregan said that if the motion had been defeated, the scenario would not have been changed. “What I voted for was the condemnation of Aer Lingus, the determination to find a replacement airline and the commitment to further invest in the mid-west,” he said.

Yes, the margin was tight and I’m disappointed that some people who could and should have been there to vote didn’t turn up.”

Limerick East’s Peter Power added: “We are not going to be deflected by the political opportunism of the opposition.”

Labour’s Jan O’Sullivan urged Aer Lingus to reconsider given the close vote.

“The Government was nearly left with egg on its face with yesterday’s close vote in the Dáil,” she said.