Job cuts proposal - Aer Lingus chief faces acid test

THE Jekyll and Hyde image of Transport Minister Séamus Brennan now emerging is bound to confuse workers at State-owned companies under his remit.

Seen as something of a hate figure among bus and rail staff at CIÉ, the State-owned transport monopoly he wants to break up, the minister has surprisingly become the unlikely champion of embattled unions at Aer Lingus, where 1,300 jobs face the axe.

The unions have pledged tooth-and-nail opposition to any compulsory redundancies resulting from the airline’s new business plan unveiled at yesterday’s board meeting, a radical blueprint for the future based on the no-frills Ryanair model.