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Aer Lingus: Time for a Reality Check
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When Aer Lingus was a monopoly, remember? It was not all that long ago, and the 40 minute trip to London cost an arm and a leg. Did we hear O’Connor, Halpenny or Begg, and the other beards complaining? Did Bertie Ahern lose his rag and call the CEO a profiteer? Did FF refuse the whopping dividend they extracted annually? And don’t remind me that there were different beards in charge then. They are all cut from the same red cloth.
Fast forward to Eircom. Did Bertie Ahern offer to compensate the Irish citizens who were conned by Mary O’Rourke and others to take up shares—to become part of the New Ireland share-owning generation—and lost their shirts when Bertie sold out to O’Reilly & the venture capitalists? Did the beards complain as they trousered their free shares? Did Con Scanlon resist? And where is Con Scanlon now? Their Union boss who protested so loudly on behalf of the comrades. Still working for the comrades? In a pig’s ass!
Pat Rabbitte asks if Bertie knows anything about poverty, as he squats in his 06-registered Mercedes-Benz 250CE, with a Garda driver clocking up overtime daily, never having to put his hand in his pocket at a petrol pump. And if the traffic to the K Club is gridlocked, sure isn’t there the helicopter to whisk him into the best seats & the freebies? Too right, and presumably Pat & his fellow-travellers will sell off the several millions worth of car hardware and take bicycles to Leinster House? And maybe operate a pay & display with the facilities of their vast car park? The reality is that Bertie Ahern and FF have soaked the citizens of this country with their monopolistic practices; they are still doing it in the ESB & other utilities, and will continue to do it as long as the supine voters roll over to be tickled.
Bertie Ahern was in the wrong by taking money, loans, benefits-in-kind, freebies, &c., call them what you like. But this is not the reason that he should go.
It is because he is incompetent.
What are you on about referring to union officials at Aer Lingus as all cut from the” same red cloth ?”
It is their business to stand up for the rights of their members -simple enough – if they didnt we’d be saying what are they being paid for ?
Those who are not members of trade unions sometinmes think they havent benefitted from trade unions just because they havent paid their union dues.
safety at work, minimum wage rates holiday pay etc etc have all come from trade unions
A lot of slogging has been done in this state on behalf of workers in different employments across the country and many others benefitted too from this grind.
IBEC go apoplectic when they say that there are 27 pieces of legislation on the statute books protecting employees. And yet we keep coming across scammers who are exploiting employees.
Some people just dont give a toss about others, isnt that right ?
Some people just dont give a toss about others, isnt that right ?
True but that goes to Unions too. We are all owners of Aer Lingus we all benefit from it. Yet the Unions put their members before us. Just like IBEC does for their members.
I think, Mollie, you missed the point of my post.
When FF were running Aer Lingus as a monopoly and extracting a huge annual dividend from overcharging on the Dublin- London run, it was OK.
When Ryanair showed them how to provide a cheap alternative, Willie Walsh was immediately on message and transformed Aer Lingus from a bloated monopoly into a lean business.
When he suggested an MBO, Bertie Ahern went ballistic, frothing at the mouth about taking a valuable state asset for his own wealth creation.
I have no idea why Ahern is so paranoid in his hatred of successful business people.
Perhaps it is because of his background. After all, a book-keeper in the Mater Hospital is not exactly the Accountant he claims to be.
But this is not to denigrate the man.
He has a job to do & he has “outed” himself as a CORI Socialist; the friend of the underdog; the champion of the trade unions; the common man who understands what it is like to be humble.
But then one must ask, what is he doing as Leader of Fianna Fail? The friends of Big Business; a party dedicated to the welfare of developers & builders, hosting champagne receptions at Galway races?
Pat Rabbitte mocks Bertie in his Mercedes Benz, never having to put his hand in his pocket at a petrol pump.
He might have mentioned that Bertie does not have to suffer gridlock en-route to the K-Club – for the freebies during the Ryder Cup.
He has the State helicopter – any time he wishes to avoid the traffic that Martin Cullen seems incapable of controlling.
Nor does he have to queue in the mess they call Dublin Airport & take off his shoes & belt two hours before a possible take off.
Of course, Pat & Enda will, no doubt, sell the limousines and switch all TDs to bicycles.
As long as Bertie is in charge, we really don’t need trade unions. Bertie will give them everything they ask for. After all he is one of them, minus the beard & sandals.
And IBEC. Well, who pays the largest whack of annual dues that keep the IBEC in power?
Big Employers; the ESB; the Construction Industry; RTE; Bord Gais; Bord na Mona; etc…
No Mollie. They were relevant in 1917 when you were wheeling your wheel barrow through Sackville Street. And then, as now, they looked East, into the Red sunset.
And have a look at any photograph of Jack O’Connor.
Then look at any picture of Lenin.
Only the cap is missing.
just a very quick response to yours and i will be back later
fianna fail are all things to all people and they always were thats the easy bit
that explains bertie
by the way i heard joan burton say recently and she knows about this stuff bertie ahern is an accountant not chartered she understands the qualification he has and she says he is correct to describe himself as such
trade unions being relevant in 1917 but not now as you say- shows how out of touch you are
all professional bodies have their organisations representing them
as i heard a journalist say last week the top consultants -medical – “their union” is the most powerful one in the country
the law society the bar council they may not be callled unions but they amount to the same thing
by god do they set the fees etc and standards and self-regulate
theres a lot of american companies in this country now and maybe they dont exist in such employments but what are the employment standards ? are a lot of well educated people on one two or three year contracts – just like irish universities -what kind living is that ?
i think they deserve better.
i agree about willy walshe, another drumcondra man actually, he should have been allowed go at aer lingus – he had proved his credentials
the bertie rant at the time indicated to me that they were lining it up for one of their own
its handy to have a rant at trade unions when you or your friends all agree isnt it –
like its taxi owners- the postman – the cheek of them- the busmen -oh not again – and the threat of the esb
its far too handy to pretend that the other organised groups dont exist
what about journalists by any standards well paid -you probably dont see a need but i do independent newspapers were trying to get out of their responsibilities pension wise to their staff – what chance has an individual against a company of that size
theres a lot of knocking of the civil service by the ibec kind of group but tds high court and supreme court judges and the like -their salaries are measured against people in the public service -all in unions
its amzing to think that trade unions still exist in the construction industry when you look at the boom – but its totally necessary because employers in that industy some of whom proved they couldnt be trusted
building workers found that their pension dues were deducted but not passed on to the construction industry federation a matter that they dont like to speak about
but a man who was asked to look into this serious issue pronounced that the money was stolen from the workers
the comptroller and auditor general has said that he believes that there is as much tax offences in the construction industry as ever there was in the sixties
as long as theres so much crookedness you have to have a bit of insurance
membership of a union is a little bit of insurance for a rainy day- those who oppose unions havent had a wet day yet
Mollie,
I really didn’t want the Ryanair takeover developing into a Left/Right polarising issue.
Martin Cullen sold the shares at €2.20 a pop.
Ryanair bought 19.2% in the open market, at varying prices, and offered to buy the rest at €2.80 a pop.
That, in a nutshell is it.
A business transaction.
You & fellow travellers want to turn the clock back to 1917 & make it an emotional issue.
When fares to London were almost £200 and FF were in control of the Board & the bearded brothers were in control in the canteen, all was rosy in the garden.
Politicians & friends of the party travelled as guests of the National Carrier, free-of-charge – an early form of an FF Benefit-in-Kind.
The rest of the overtaxed public paid through the nose.
That was then.
Michael O’Leary changed all this.
And Bertie hates him for it.
Hates him for reducing the cost of travel,which has no benefit for him, as he never has to pay.
Hates him beacause if Ryanair take over Aer Lingus,Bertie won’t be able to exchange seats on the board for the odd gift (or “loan”). Another reason to squeal.
Bertie may be an “Accountant”, but he talks like a book-keeper who has mislaid his pencil.
Michael O’Leary’s history of when he takes over rival airlines is not good, where is Buzz now?
Gone!!! Michael forced them out of business with predatory pricing, took them over, closed them within weeks and prices on those routes returned to normal(higher).
His history in Ieland since Ryanair was rescued by the Goverment is similar, pricing out other budget airlines until they pack up and leave then as per usual Ryanair’s prices return to normal.
Aer Lingus is the only airline in Ireland to survive in competion with Ryanair till now,if Michael acquires Aer Lingus now, how long will it survive? Weeks? Months? Years?
Michael says we only compete with Aer Lingus on seventeen routes out the hundreds that Ryanair operate but never mentions that they are all the routes in and out of Ireland as Aer Lingus does not compete with Ryanair on routes out of the UK to Europe.
Do we really want to return to the days of a monopolly on flights out of Ireland where the airline can charge what ever it thinks demand on the route will put up with.
Do people really thing that it would make business sense for Ryanair to continue to offer the cheapest possible fares in and out of Ireland when it would have a stranglehold on access to and from Ireland, hardly!
Limerick Lads seem to have identified my original point.
That Aer Lingus was a de facto Monopoly, controlled by Fianna Fail, whose ministers & friends travelled Free-of-Charge, insulating them against the exorbitant cost charged to the ordinary travelling taxpayers, who had to underwrite the original cost of setting up this Government Monopoly.
Ryanair have broken up this cosy cartel and shown Aer Lingus that it is possible to run an efficient, punctual airline at a fraction of what they were charging the Irish & British public.
So much so that Aer Lingus was on the brink of Bankruptcy.
Enter Willie Walsh, who immediately transformed the bloated, union-riddled monolith into a lean businesslike, profitable company.
When Bertie Ahern & Martin Cullen dithered about ways & means of funding the fleet expansion, neither of them having the cop or competence to understand the business, Willie Walsh, impatient to move the process forward, while Aer Lingus still had a reputation in Banking circles, suggested an MBO.
The rest is today’s mess.
Ahern lost it, utterly, showing in the process his true colours & his total unsuitablity to run this country.
For this alone, he should resign and take a job – where his talents are best suited – in the trade union movememnt – or CORI.
Ireland needs dynamic, street-wise people to lead us out of the debt-ridden, overpriced country that he and his supine followers have allowed Ireland to become.
When the SSIA euphoria – and a probable “give-away” Budget (that Ahern will direct Cowen to bring in, if the votes are slipping) – have evaporated – and the hysteria of the 2007 election has withered on the vine, there will be an inevitable reckoning in 2008, when the banks start to call in the overdue Loans – some €300 plus billion!!!
SOS
I think we hold very different views on the attempted takeover of Aer Lingus by Ryanair(destruction of it’s only competion in the Irish market) Hopefully Denis O’Briens intervention might put an end to it and we can continue to have two strong airlines (with maybe others entering the market too) competing for passengers on the routes in and out of Ireland with the continuation of lower fares not at the whim of Michael O’Leary but because of a vibrant competitive marketplace.
Dream on, Lad.
Denis O’Brien is a businessman. He is not intervening.
He is investing in a company that might, under the stewardship of Michael O’Leary, become a vibrant competitive entity, freed from the shackles of closed-shop “work” practices and the dead hand of government.
And we are talking about serious business; action; profitability; value added; synergies; expansion; cost effectiveness; inventory control; structured purchasing programmes; effective marketing.
Not about tomorrow; pensions; holiday & sick leave; maternity leave; demarcation lines; security….
Nor Politics & Bertie Ahern’s aversion to successful Irish businessmen. Men with vision; drive; energy; men with proven track records of achievement and more to give.
Think of Martin Cullen; Michael Martin; and consider their achievemnets.
Voting machines gathering dust; gridlock; empty pubs…
Think of Bertie – a minimum wage that nobody earns; a failed EU Constitution; an expense account (eg. €400 a week for grooming!)that would give dignity back to thousands of Sean Healy’s starving poor.
There is a simple lesson here.
Government should not engage in business.
Period.
SOS
1 AIRLINE = MONOPOLLY (High prices when run by Aer Lingus or Ryanair)
2 AIRLINES = COMPETION (Lower fares for all)
Michael O’Leary is a great believer in competion when it is not against him, low prices to drive out the competion then high prices when he has none.
RYANAIR(aer lingus) the nightmare not the dream situation
Lads,
You have a point.
it is most obvious in the case of the ESB, that bloated, overmanned monolith. Eircom exercises a lot of monopolistic malpractices.
Ryanair, on the other hand, has built its unique Brand on the back of L
Sorry,
I seem to have hit the wrong button!
Ryanair has built its reputation on LOW COST FARES.
This is Rayanair’s BRAND.
In business, as oppoased to Government, you don’t cahnge an established Brand for short term gain.
Try to remove the blinkers & stop listening to the whingers, who see their cushy number threatened by the possibility of having to earn their pay.
And Bertie, who’s resistance is purest spite.
Quick reply.
mollie
its handy to have a rant at trade unions when you or your friends all agree isnt it -
like its taxi owners- the postman – the cheek of them- the busmen -oh not again – and the threat of the esb
What I was saying is that you can’t say that IBEC doesn’t care about other people but unions do. When you think about it what is IBEC but a union itself.
As for Ryanair. Their model is to get people to fly where they don’t need to. People got on city breaks because ryanair is cheap. If ryanair up their prices people will go back to ballybunion