Call me a cynic but some personal observations on this issue:
1. Senior government members are not going to resign over this. O'Dea waited long enough to get his current position and neither he nor any other minister or junior minister is going to hand back the driver, the merc and the extra €100+ salary they get over backbench TD's in protest. Irish politicians don't do the resignation thing and for the most part are pretty honourless (is that a real word?), just look at Tony Kileen who thinks it's ok to write letters on behalf of murderers on the off chance he will get a few extra votes out of it.
2. Local county councillors are making a big deal over this due to the upcoming local elections in two years. They need to be seen to do something. They will be back to medical cards and planning permissions soon enough.
3. Some local businesses especially the multinationals must be secretly delighted with this decision by Aer Lingus, who they can now blame for job losses when they lay off staff and move operations to Poland or similar.
4. This country is in a pretty bad state if the entire economy of the west depends on four flights or so a day to one particular airport. It is still possible to get from Shannon to London, albeit a different airport.
5. O'Leary is taking the p*ss like only he can. He will force an EGM, Ryanair will abstain from the vote, the government will not back calls to change the decision and may in fact have to vote with the management to force the changes through - O'Leary 1 Bertie / SIPTU Coalition 0
6. The Aer Lingus unions are being the stubborn luddites like only a trade union can. Trying to negotiate the terms and conditions of employees in another country is a new one! What next, SIPTU insisting that teacher pay in Ireland be lowered to match that of the UK?
Glad to get that off my chest!
One final thing, I am far from being a Bertie fan, but how clever was he when he put together his dolly mixture government and got himself a decent majority. What care he if 2-3 TD’s resign the party whip.