New Aer Lingus HQ

this is maybe not the best place to start a political discussion, but as it has started i can’t help but get involved.

There is a huge amount of opinion being spouted about this issue. I would suggest that overall the country/taxpayer wins through privatisation , even if it is only part privitisation.It might be a good idea to sell of bits of land here and there , but i would say that this is just more interfeering in the company.

The company has plenty of potential to become valuable but , this potential will only realistically realised in private hands. While we might not make a lot of money on selling it , at least we don’t lose money. Also the in the medium term it has to radically improve or go bust.And that is a lot easier to do if it is in private hands.

A huge amount of rose tinting has gone on about this. Bluntly aer lingus is a crap airline.
ryanair has more services in and out of ireland. They are more punctual than any airline in europe. They are cheaper on average than any airline in europe.They lose the fewest amount of bags out of all the airlines in europe.Ryanair has the youngest fleet in europe. Ryanair lost 16000 bags last year for 24 million passengers. Aerlingus lost 72000 for 8 million passengers. Ryanair employs 2200 and aerlingus 3000. go figure

Ireland has been poorly served by a state led national carrier. Aer lingus is undoubtedly doing much better by leaps and bounds but that is only because otherwise ryanair would have forced it into bankruptcy. ryanair has clearly shown the trade off between the state controlling strategic services and providing the very best services is heavily weighted in favour of private enterprise.

While i understand the rose tinting nostalgia for the old days , when air travel was a middle class only affair, irelands strategic interest is in having the most planes in and out of ireland. It doesn’t matter if there is a shamrock on the plane. EVER gone to paris because of air france ? no i didn’t think so. The perception is that yanks like coming to ireland on a shamrock plane . but that is nonsense : yanks like coming to ireland , and yanks like low fares.

I went to france in 1992 for 233 pounds return. this year i made the same trip for 120 euros (including the trip into and out of paris ) . SELL SELL SELL !

Sell it as fast as possible! sell dublin bus sell bus earinn. sell irish rail ( keep the rail network), sell all the power plant s (keep the transmission network ) sell all the hospitals ( and create a fund to pay for people who can’t pay for themselves) sell all the schools (likewise a fund for those who can’t afford to pay for themselves), and give the universities proper independance (political and financial ,through a graduate tax system) Governments waste more than the profit made by companies every time. SO sell it off , look after the poor and everyone is better off !

By the way, fingal is unveiling its draft airport development masterplan on Wednesday. I’ll be at the briefing so will post main points here afterwards though I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re in the Times on Wednesday morning

“This masterplan has been prepared by Fingal County Council, in the context of the Fingal Development Plan 2005-2008. The lands which are subject to the proposed Masterplan comprise a total of 1084 hectares and are zoned DA (Designated Airport Area) in the current Development Plan with the objective “To ensure the efficient and effective operation of the airport in accordance with an Approved Airport Action Plan”

The final approved Masterplan for Dublin Airport will be the statutory Local Area Plan (LAP) for Dublin Airport under the Planning and Development Act 2000.”

It appears that this project has gone into the ether which is a pity; at least Henry J Lyons didn’t waste their time on site; as it appears that they have got yet another Aer Rianta commision

DDDA are taking part of the site back for car parking and roads for T2 so it definitely won’t be built in current guise