This morning, workers at Aer Lingus woke up to the devastating news that up to 500 jobs will be cut at the airline, impacting both staff at head office and flight crews. By all measures, Aer Lingus is a profitable company, reporting operating profits of €282 million in 2025. Its parent company, IAG, has operating profits of €5 billion. Yet, 500 families in north Dublin, Cork, Shannon and across the country now face the possibility of losing their livelihoods. We urgently need firm guarantees that workers' rights will be protected. What engagement has the Minister for enterprise had with Aer Lingus to minimise the number of jobs that are going to be lost? Will the Government meet representatives of the unions, the Irish Air Line Pilots Association, IALPA, Fórsa and other unions, to ensure that impacted workers receive full and fair redundancy packages and that we have full transparency, while also committing to wider statutory redundancy reforms? We need the number of jobs lost to be minimised. We need urgent engagement by the Government.

I thank the Deputy. The Government is aware of the recent announcement by Aer Lingus that it is to undertake some network and organisational changes as a result of what it describes as a sustained and challenging operational environment. It has stated that it will begin consultation with employees and their representatives, which is important and urgent. It has said that it expects the impact could potentially see approximately 500 employees leave the company.

I also note that the network changes include the cessation of a number of long-haul routes and some short-haul routes, commencing towards the end of the summer. The company has said that any customers impacted will be contacted directly.

This is a commercial matter for the company but some of the issues that the Deputy has raised are relevant matters for the Government. On foot of her raising them, I will ask the Minister to come back to her.