The chief executive of Aer Lingus, Mr Willie Walsh, last night strongly rejected allegations that he has a potential conflict of interest over his continuing role at the airline.

Yesterday Mr Jim Glennon, a Fianna Fáil TD for Dublin North, said if newspaper reports were true and Mr Walsh was planning to set up a new airline venture, the Minister for Transport, Mr Cullen, should dismiss him.

He said if the reports were true, a "clear conflict of interest" would arise.

Mr Walsh said he totally rejected the idea he had any potential conflict of interest. "There is no conflict of interest, none whatsoever. I do not see one," he told The Irish Times.

Asked about his future plans, Mr Walsh said: "I fully expect to be within the airline business after I leave in one guise or another, but I am not in a position to elaborate at this time."

He said he had provided assurances about his position to Aer Lingus chairman Mr John Sharman, and said this would prevent any conflicts of interest arising.

Mr Walsh and his two colleagues, Mr Brian Dunne, chief financial officer, and Mr Séamus Kearney, chief operations officer, have said they will serve until May if necessary, but it is possible they will leave before that.

So far the board has not asked them to leave any earlier.

Mr Glennon also suggested over the weekend that some Aer Lingus staff in 2003 suggested to Mr Walsh that a new low-fares, long-haul operation be set up by the company. He said documents showed this venture could have served Bangkok and Dubai from Dublin.

Mr Glennon claimed that this also highlighted a potential conflict.

Mr Walsh denied this yesterday, but said he was not interested in commenting any further on Mr Glennon's remarks.

But sources close to the management team said staff were encouraged to provide suggestions on a regular basis and two staff (one pilot and one cabin crew member) in early 2003 came forward with the idea of flying to Dubai and Bangkok.

However, the source said this was purely a staff suggestion and that no business plan was advanced.

Fine Gael strongly criticised the remarks of Mr Glennon and accused the TD of trying to shift the public's attention away from the Government's poor handling of the Aer Lingus issue.

Their transport spokeswoman, Ms Olivia Mitchell TD, said: "It's really a bit rich for Jim Glennon to attack the current Aer Lingus management team, given the Government's own complete indecision on this issue.

"Then again, it's typical of Fianna Fáil to try and pass the buck and deflect attention from its own woeful performance on this matter."

She added: "However, to suggest there are any question marks about how the team managed the airline heretofore, as Jim Glennon has done, is an absolute nonsense.

"The reality is that if the Government had made a decision on the future ownership and funding of the airline, the management team would now almost certainly be planning the expansion of Aer Lingus, rather than setting up in direct competition to the airline they have so successfully resuscitated," she added.