[Comment] A new transport minister please, Bertie

Victor

http://www.thepost.ie/web/Sitemap/1.9did-828842164-pageUrl--2FThe-Newspaper-2FSundays-Paper-2FComment-and-Analysis.asp

A new transport minister please, Bertie
11/07/04 00:00
By Vincent Browne

Why do Willie Walsh and his associates want to buy Aer Lingus? Because they think they can make several million euro by taking it over and either selling it to an airline conglomerate or floating it on the stock exchange in the next few years.

The Progressive Democrats are in favour of the transfer of vast fortunes from the state to private individuals. On that basis, the management buyout (MBO) of Aer Lingus is likely to go ahead. But what is the public interest justification for it?

Why should the government assist Walsh and his friends by selling Aer Lingus at a price that would enable them to resell it at enormous profit?

If it is of no consequence whether Aer Lingus is in state hands, why not hold onto it for another few years and keep the profits that Walsh and his friends are likely to make?

The privatisation of Aer Lingus may not be a bad thing, provided the state makes a healthy profit from it.

I cannot see how the state would be compromised by not owning an airline. It's not as if no airline would want to fly in and out of Ireland, carrying passengers and freight at a profit.

Neither do I see how the workers at Aer Lingus would be any worse off than they are now under a privatised company.

Walsh wants to cut another 1,300 jobs, but he and the existing board want to do that whether Aer Lingus is privatised or not. Indeed, if the workers as a whole wanted to take over Aer Lingus, why not?

I don't have any sentimental attachment to Aer Lingus. Far from giving the great service to the Irish nation that is often talked about, I think it ripped us off for years.

Had there been no Ryanair, just Aer Lingus and a state-controlled British Airways, what would be the cheapest airfare to London now?

I recall letters from Aer Lingus to the Irish Times 20 or 30 years ago, saying it was impossible for the airline to offer fares of less than £200 (€254) to London. Had the situation remained, fares would now be about €1,000.

So what is the big deal about selling off Aer Lingus? And why should a trio of opportunistic middle-men make a killing on a quick transaction, when the state could do it itself by holding onto the airline for a while?

There was great hullabaloo over the `scandal' of the Eircom flotation several years ago, on the grounds that the state got too much for the company and those who bought shares in the public flotation got ripped off.

At the last election, Fine Gael even promised to compensate the speculators (including myself, incidentally) who had lost money on Eircom.

Two well-known journalists took up the cudgels on behalf of the speculators. It was as though there had been some great fraud perpetrated on those who took a chance, even though the beneficiaries were the public.

For once the public was not ripped off, and these gents were indignant. The reality is, of course, that the public was ripped off.

Eircom was sold too cheaply, and a gang of speculators, led by Sir Anthony O'Reilly, increased its fortune at the expense of the public interest.

So, as far as I am concerned, there is no problem with the sale of Aer Lingus provided:

*it is not sold precipitously to Walsh and his eager friends

*whatever `killing' is made on the sale is made by the state

*the workers are no worse off than they would have been had the company been retained in state ownership.

One thing is certain - if Seamus Brennan remains in charge of this, he will make a god-awful mess of it. He has single-handedly almost brought about the collapse of Aer Lingus while transport minister.

Remember the letter of comfort he gave the unions over Team Aer Lingus, promising that, if anything happened to Team, the workers who left Aer Lingus to join it would have the right of return to the airline? That letter virtually guaranteed the failure of Team and threatened the future of the airline.

The management of transport policy over several decades has been spectacularly inept, aside from the understandable underestimation of population numbers. What, for instance, is the break-up of Aer Rianta all about?

The rationale appears to be that if Shannon, in particular, had its own board and separate identity, it would be far more aggressive in promoting the airport there. If that is so, would it not be sufficient to have a sub-board of Aer Rianta looking after Shannon, and an entirely separate management?

So why cut off Shannon from the support of the ever-expanding Dublin Airport?

More relevantly, perhaps, why cause a major conflict with the unions over what seems to be a marginal issue?

One of the successes in transport policy was the introduction of quality bus corridors.

Why wasn't that strategy pursued aggressively as an alternative to the Luas extravagance, or even as a supplement to it? For very little cost, tens of thousands more passengers could have been accommodated on buses in Dublin, had bus corridors been introduced more rapidly and on a much greater scale.

The existing bus fleet is capable of carrying far more passengers - if buses could travel much faster.

The same buses and the same drivers could cover the same bus routes more often, if there were better bus corridors.

Another example is the failure to designate Connolly Station as Dublin's single main train station and transport hub.

Instead, all the trains coming from the south and west are arriving at Heuston Station, several miles away from Connolly Station and the Dart service.

The recent upgrading of Heuston Station at a cost of several million confirms a strategy to screw up transport indefinitely. Congratulations.

And finally, why were some of the hundreds of millions thrown away on Luas not diverted to provide a rail link to Dublin Airport?

In the cabinet reshuffle that is to come, couldn't the Taoiseach put someone else into transport?

Anybody. Michael Smith. Michael Woods, even.

Martin Cullen . . . ? No, please no. But anybody else.

As for handing Walsh and his friends millions for their opportunism, couldn't the health service do with that instead?

thejollyrodger

After yesturday, it looks like we urgently need a new transport minister. Someone like Mrs Harney. Brennan has made a complete U Turn with the privatisation of Dublin Bus and looks like the whole Aer Rianta thing is going to be fudged !!

FFS, we need all the infastructure built and deregulated:mad: :mad:

thejollyrodger

maybe its not so clear cut as that:o

Brennan did a good job gettting that through the Seanad today

impr0v

i have never voted fianna fail, and don't intend to in the near future, yet i regard brennan as the best transport minister in decades. admittedly, he's the only one that has had such funds at his disposal, but he is slowly but surely getting results in most facets of the portfolio.

De Rebel

Originally posted by impr0v
but he is slowly but surely getting results in most facets of the portfolio.

would it be fair to ask for the list of his tangible accomplishments? last time he was lauded here the only tangible point on the list was the introduction of the points system. and frankly his accomplishment in this area simply highlighted the fact that the minister responsible for the garda was unable to achieve the same thing.

impr0v

Perfectly fair to ask for it, De Rebel.
I'm going to write the list as a member of the ordinary voting public, i.e. without researching the exact figures. Please bear in mind what i said in the first post, that I'm no fan of fianna fail in general and that this list is objective, or should be anyway.

-luas. overdue and over budget, but delivered (well, some of it anyway)
-investment in rail. i don't use the services much if at all, but i believe that some improvements are beginning to materialise. admittedly making some improvments to a third world service is not all that laudable an acheivement.
-penalty points and the driver theory test, and some small progress on driver testing.
-the road signage issue mph -> kph. not yet in place but on the way very soon
-roads. guaranteed investment in road infrastructure. there are obvious and valid arguments to be made over the amount that is being invested in roads as compared to other modes of transport, and also about the value for money being achieved, but the investment is long overdue and the results are visible on any inter city journey undertaken today.
-qbc's and cycle lanes in dublin city.

there may be some errors in the above, e.g. some agency other than the dot may be responsible for an item on the list, if so i apologise but to me they seem to be improvements brought about under brennans watch. to me it seems to me to be the only department displaying tangible results (with the exception of the smoking ban). yes, they are laboured, expensive results, but i can't see any other government or minister doing quicker or cheaper given the nature of this country. you could say that the 'nature of the country' is directly attributable to the government but that's a wider issue, as my only point is that the minister for transport seems to be getting results.

(notice i've stayed away from the aer rianta issue, as i'm not knowledgable enough about the matter to discuss it with any confidence).