Labour wants Shannon commitments honoured

Updated: 21:38, Wednesday, 12 September 2007

Eamon Gilmore has said the Govt cannot continue to ignore evidence of damage to the mid-west region by the Aer Lingus decision.

1 of 1 Eamon Gilmore Met Shannon lobby groups today
Eamon Gilmore
Met Shannon lobby groups today

Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore has said the Government cannot continue to ignore evidence that the Aer Lingus decision to scrap its Shannon-Heathrow service will do enormous damage to the economy of the mid-west and western regions.

Deputy Gilmore was in Shannon today meeting workers and lobby groups opposed to the decision.

He said that if the Aer Lingus decision had been announced two weeks before the election the Government would have intervened and had it reversed.

The Labour Party has tabled a motion calling on the Government to honour the commitments it had given to the region.

Meanwhile, An Post has refused to deliver 2,500 unstamped letters, which an Aer Lingus lobby group mailed to their local Fianna Fáil ministers and TDs yesterday.

The Shannon Action Group, which is opposing the ending of the Shannon-Heathrow service, posted the letters to ministers Willie O'Dea and Tony Killen and the four other Fianna Fáil deputies in Clare and Limerick at the airport Post Office yesterday morning.

They said they believed there was a freepost service, which allows them to write to their TDs.

This evening, An Post said no such facility existed and they would not be delivering the letters.

A spokesman for the group said they were bitterly disappointed and would make arrangements to have the letters delivered to their local politicians.

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