Aer Rianta: Into the Dail

national | worker & community struggles and protests | news report Friday June 04, 2004 03:40 by Seamus Brennan

In a previous Aer Rianta story, advice was given to 'follow the assets'. Checking the Dail, they were just talking about reports into Aer Rianta.

Sean Crowe got a written response on Monday 1st June to a question asking for a statement on the consultanices reports about Aer Rianta. Seamus Brennan confirmed
"There have been a number of consultancy or expert reports in recent years in relation to Aer Rianta and the State Airports including the Warburg Dillon Read report of 1999 "
but was careful to point out that "The work ... PricewaterhouseCoopers, PWC, ... does not constitute a consultancy report or study.">> which was nice, since he hadn't been asked.

There was a final barb as the fact that the ICTU and its advisers had signed a confidentiality agreement to not divulge the contents of the reports was added on at the end - which may be a surprise to shop stewards in services possibly marked for outsourcing in the report.

Read the full details here.

This of course is not the first appearance of Aer Rianta in Dail debates. A random text search pulls up old questions - here from the 1997 debate on the bill to Eamonn Gilmore asked..
I see no reference in the Bill to the disposal of land or the circumstances under which land might be disposed of by the company. Will they have the power to dispose of land? If they have that power, under what circumstances may they do so? Will disposal require ministerial approval?"

But for now, the reports paid for by the owners of Aer Rianta should be available to them. And the practice of trade unions signing confidentiality agreements needs to be examined