daa is astonished and taken aback by SIPTU’s decision to proceed with its planned industrial action at Dublin and Cork airports despite a Government-sponsored initiative to resolve the current pension issues.

SIPTU has said it will proceed with a four hour work stoppage on Friday, March 14 despite the Expert Panel established jointly yesterday by the Department of Transport, Tourism & Sport and the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, and fully supported by both ICTU and Ibec.

daa’s position from the outset has been that the threat of industrial action by SIPTU has been both unnecessary and unwarranted. Given the establishment of a high level independent body to examine the pension issue, SIPTU’s decision to continue with industrial action also flies in the face of ICTU’s position on this matter.

The Government, Ibec and ICTU said yesterday that they are all “of the view that a final effort should be made to resolve this dispute without recourse to industrial action”.

daa will continue to discuss the implications of SIPTU’s decision with its airline customers and apologises to its passengers for the inconvenience that SIPTU’s unacceptable action will cause. We will communicate further with passengers as soon as possible.