Government should cash in on Aer Lingus

What is the actual purpose of the Irish government retaining a 25 per cent shareholding in Aer Lingus? Is it to prevent the national carrier being taken over by a multinational? Or to impose some class of moral authority over the company’s boardroom? Or is it merely a legacy issue, a throwback to a not-too-distant time when a Bertie Ahern-led government sought to mollify unions through a policy of industrial appeasement?

The answer ...