Shannon vote – Conviction politics has taken flight

The Dáil passed a motion on Thursday expressing “the Government’s deep disappointment at the Aer Lingus decision to end the Shannon-London Heathrow service”.

This was essentially an empty political gesture — to express fulsome regret and carry on regardless.

When Aer Lingus was being privatised, it was clear that it would become a victim of the market.

But the State did not sell off all of its shares. It held on to 25.4% of the company in order to ensure that it would operate in the national interest.

At the time, the Government explained that the rationale for holding on to a “golden share” was to ensure it could block any subsequent attempt by the company to dilute the interests of Dublin, Cork, or Shannon airports. When the decision was announced to close down the Shannon-Heathrow link, however, the Government stood idly by.

Michael O’Leary called the Government’s bluff by offering to have Ryanair use its shares in Aer Lingus to maintain the Heathrow slots for Shannon.

This assured the Government of the support of more than a majority of the shares in Aer Lingus.

But the interests of Shannon were clearly expendable.

The insincerity of the promise to use the “golden share” to protect the interests of Shannon was clearly exposed.

Does anyone think for one moment that the Government would have stood idly by, if Aer Lingus had decided to shift all of its Heathrow slots from Dublin?

This is about more than the betrayal of Shannon Airport, or the betrayal of the people of Limerick, Clare and the mid-west region; it is about the betrayal of democracy itself.

It was always apparent that it would only take a handful of Fianna Fáil deputies with courage and a sense of duty to make the Government see sense, by indicating that they would not support the decision.

As it turned out, there was not even one Government deputy with the guts to vote against the Government on this matter.

When the Dáil voted on the Shannon-Heathrow issue on Thursday, the Opposition tabled an amendment “noting the Government’s repeated assurances that, notwithstanding the privatisation of Aer Lingus, these connections would be safeguarded”.

The amendment, therefore, called “on the Government to fulfil its commitment to the Irish people by exercising its voting power to ensure the retention of these strategic air links”.

The vote was taken on that amendment first and it failed by just 68 votes to 67 in an electronic vote.

Whatever about voting with the Opposition, all the government deputies knew when they voted on the substantive motion, that any one of them could defeat the motion by voting against it.

That vote was the same, and to emphasise the point the Opposition called for a formal vote.

Where were all those brave deputies who were going to stand up for the rights of their constituents?

They spurned three opportunities to take a stand.

It has been a sad week for conviction politics, because the only real political conviction we witnessed was of Michael Collins yesterday in Limerick Circuit Court.