22 September 2005 Edition

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Bizarre Labour U-turn on Aer Lingus

Cllr. Felix Gallagher

Cllr. Felix Gallagher

In a bizarre u-turn Labour councillors on Fingal County Council voted against a Sinn Féin motion opposing the privatisation of Aer Lingus that has been backed by Labour councillors in Dublin City and South Dublin Councils.

The motion was passed by 13 votes to eight at the September meeting of the Council after Sinn Féin Councillor Felix Gallagher was backed by Independent, Green, Socialist and Fianna Fáil councillors.

Gallagher confessed his confusion at Labour's actions. "The motion I put to the Council was supported by Labour councillors in Dublin City and South Dublin County Councils," he pointed out. "Labour councillors who put, or attempted to put similar motions, on the clár had so little problem with it that they cut and paste whole sections of it into their own motions.

"Yet when it came to the vote, a number of Labour councillors made the bizarre decision to vote against their own party policy as well as the interests of the Irish people and Aer Lingus workers and customers, by opposing our motion. It is absolutely inexplicable."

As senior SIPTU officials looked on Labour councillors proceeded to oppose the motion, joined only by their proposed coalition colleagues in Fine Gael. The vote means that three of Dublin's four local authorities have approved a Sinn Féin motion based on the private members motion introduced by the party in Leinster House earlier this year.


An Phoblacht
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Ireland