Crowe calls on Brennan to scrap Airports Bill

Sinn Féin reps after a meeting with the branch secretary of SIPTU's Aviation Workers' section

Sinn Féin TD and Transport spokesperson Seán Crowe has called on Minister Séamus Brennan to scrap his State Airports Bill.

Crowe has described the minister's actions as "scandalous and irresponsible". The Minister is "pushing a privatisation agenda against all advice", according to Crowe.

After a series of Leinster House questions to the minister asking what advice he had received on the case for breaking up Aer Rianta into three competing airports, Crowe said that "millions of euros have been spent on reports claiming that the breakup of Aer Rianta would be a disaster, yet he continues to insist it will happen".

The real problem, according to Crowe, is that Brennan is "ignoring what actually needs to be done to improve air transport by placing a Ministerial order preventing the new terminal at Dublin Airport from going ahead. There is no rationale for his refusal to act on immediate issues that need addressing for the good of air travel while attempting to push forward ill-conceived plans to break up a state company like Aer Rianta.

"Next week, the State Airports Bill is scheduled to come before the House again. This would enable the government to carry out its deeply flawed plans for Aer Rianta's break up. I would urge him to pull back on this legislation and to listen to the many organisations which have presented him with the reasons why this should not go ahead."

Sinn Féin has asked Brennan to take a more considered approach to the issue of Aer Rianta and produce a White Paper on Air Transport as a matter of urgency before rushing into the unnecessary sell-off of Aer Lingus or breaking up of Aer Rianta.

Crowe said: "Some coherent policy paper must be produced on the state of Ireland's air transport. Workers and the travelling public need to know exactly who are the vested interests that are driving the break-up of this financially viable company."