EI321 From Iraq, joined Jul 2009, 0 posts, RR: 0 Reply 1, posted (7 years 1 month 4 days 1 hour ago) and read 1317 times:
The management proposed a buyout only after exausting all other options. It was a last ditch (you could even call it desperation) effort. Walsh had pressed for an IPO for several years. Blundering Bertie blocked it because the bearded mafia that are the Trade Unions said so. And again the tax payer took the bill.
Ahern is distorting the situation to save his bacon. Three directors could not realistically afford to buy the whole airline. He is trying to make it look as if these three would have had the whole airline in their back pockets when in reality, the buy out would have been financed by the usual banks/investment houses, etc whom would have held the lions share. This is what will happen when EI is sold off anyway.
EIRules From Ireland, joined Aug 2007, 642 posts, RR: 10 Reply 2, posted (7 years 1 month 4 days ago) and read 1278 times:
"Steal Aer Lingus". Has Bertie lost all sense of reality? Even if you thought that, the leader of the country does not say those kind of things. This is just another dig at the privitisation of EI so the govt. can delay it even further
Next Flights: EI DUB-LHR A320, BA LHR-SFO B744, UA SFO-LAS A320, BA LAS-LHR B744, EI LHR-DUB A320
Kaitak From Ireland, joined Aug 1999, 11996 posts, RR: 36 Reply 3, posted (7 years 1 month 3 days 22 hours ago) and read 1189 times:
It was a dishonourable thing to say, particularly as it was said with the protection of Dail privilege (i.e. WW can't sue him).
The clear reality - as evidenced in many other ways - is that this govt needs a sharp pitchfork in the posterior to move on any aviation issues. The interest simply isn't there; EI is simply a pawn in the political chess game. It is depressing that the importance of aviation to an economy like Ireland is still not recognised.
As EI321 says above, the MBO proposal was the only way the airline could get the govt to act; it was clear to the senior management that the govt had absolutely no interest in taking action, so they had to be forced.
He had done all he could within the confines he had worked under, and the airline needed investment to expand. I think WW knew that the MBO wasn't a runner, but they had to find a way to get the govt to move.
My big fear now, however, is what happens to the current privatisation process; Bertie says now that it will go ahead, but Bertie says what suits the mood of the times. If the "conditions" aren't right (and they might certainly be less good than they are now, particularly if Iran needs to be taken in hand), then the chances decline. Basically, the longer the govt waits, the more likely it is that something will happen. Thus, the Taoiseach and SIPTU will have sold EI down the river; the victor - their biggest nemesis, Ryanair.
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