Departments’ failures frustrate the mid-west

ANY chance the Government might have had of persuading Aer Lingus chief Dermot Mannion to change his mind about the transfer of slots to Belfast was effectively lost once the decision was announced in public on August 7.

Ultimately any such attempt by Bertie Ahern or Transport Minister Noel Dempsey to try and influence an airline boss who has already stood up to powerful trade unions would probably have fallen on deaf ears. It is certainly the fig-leaf various ministers have sought to grasp in recent weeks over the failure of the Government to act on early warnings about the closure of the Shannon-Heathrow route.

However, the people of the mid-west remain angry that the Taoiseach and his ministers never used the period before the story broke to prevent its closure.