The Taoiseach has intervened in the Shannon controversy by asking a group of senior Government officials to examine all the available options for airline connections to the region.
The work of the official group, which will begin in the coming days, will inform the deliberations of the Cabinet when it considers the issue in 10 days' time at its first meeting after the holiday.
A Government statement yesterday said the Taoiseach had asked a group of senior officials to examine the "available options in supporting aviation connectivity for Shannon". The group has also been asked to examine the level of investment in the region provided for under the new National Development Plan and Transport 21.
An assessment of the "actual implications of aviation connectivity" for companies in the region will be undertaken by the enterprise development agencies. The officials involved will work under the aegis of the Cabinet committee on housing, infrastructure and public-private partnerships. The group will be chaired by a senior official from the Department of the Taoiseach.
A Government spokesman said that the Government was deeply disappointed at the Aer Lingus decision on Shannon and believed it has a role to play in seeing what could be done to improve the position.
"It is the start of a process which will involve officials from the Departments of the Taoiseach, Finance, Enterprise and Employment and Transport as well as State agencies," he added.
Meanwhile yesterday the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Éamon Ó Cuív backed his Cabinet colleague and Transport Minister Noel Dempsey in ruling out Government intervention to reverse the Aer Lingus decision.
"We are not going to interfere with the decision of Aer Lingus, but on the other hand we have to try now to deal with a difficult position at Shannon and look at other ways of resolving the problem," said Mr Ó Cuív.
The Government may now have no choice but to back the Aer Lingus management decision at an emergency general meeting of the company called by Ryanair. If the Government abstains or votes against the management plan it is likely to be defeated.
Speaking on RTÉ radio Mr Ó Cuív rejected any suggestion that he was at odds with Mr Dempsey or that he favoured Government intervention to get Aer Lingus to reverse its decision.
Referring to the contents of a letter he sent to a Fianna Fáil meeting in Shannon during the week, Mr Ó Cuív said that like the rest of the Cabinet he was dismayed at the Aer Lingus decision, but insisted that the Government would work to overcome the difficulties it had created.
He said he could not understand how this position could be interpreted to mean that he was seeking to get the Government to reverse the Aer Lingus decision. He said the Government would have to act in a positive way to develop new services for the west of Ireland.
He said Mr Dempsey had outlined "very, very clearly" why the Government could not intervene as some people were suggesting. On the other hand it had been made absolutely clear that balanced regional development was a "very high priority" for the Government.
He said people were suggesting the Government do something "that would not be in the national interest, and that we won't do".
Mr Ó Cuív said however, that the Government would look at alternative ways of solving the problem but that "interfering with the day-to-day affairs of Aer Lingus is not the way to solve the problem". Suggesting the Government would look at other European airports to replace Heathrow, he said "there are other airports around the world that provide connectivity - there are airports in Paris and Amsterdam".
The Minister conceded that the airline's decision was "a challenge" and "a concern" for industry in the west, but insisted that "giving day-to-day instructions to Aer Lingus would not be the sensible way" of overcoming this challenge.
The Atlantic Connectivity Alliance yesterday called on Mr Ó Cuív to support Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea and "overturn his pronouncement" that the Government could not intervene over the Aer Lingus decision.
