Floating Aer Lingus

One of the main concerns around the floating of Aer Lingus is around the strategic nature of air travel for an island nation and the value of the slots into UK airports in particular Heathrow and the possibility that a private company might be tempted to sell those assests to companies which might fly into those slots from non-Irish destinations.

My suggestion would be that the current Aer Lingus would continue to exist as a state owned holding company and that it would own the landing slots, it would in turn then license those slots to the new floated Aer Lingus entity. This would be mean the slots would be retained in the control of the Irish people while Aer Lingus the transportation company would be free to expand.

FF backbenchers

So, the FFer backbenchers are complaining about being ignored by the government. So now at last, they must have some idea of what most of the citizens feel like when dealing with this government.


The grand ould duke of Cork he had two dozen men,
He marched them up to see old Bertie
And he marched them down again

When they were up, people feted them.
And when they were down, people ignored them.
And when they were only halfway up,
No one knew what to do with them.

The Grand old Duke of York he had ten thousand men
He marched them up to the top of the hill
And he marched them down again.

When they were up, they were up
And when they were down, they were down
And when they were only halfway up
They were neither up nor down.