The Government is expected to appoint corporate advisers for the flotation of Aer Lingus early next week following presentations to the Department of Public Enterprise during the past week.

Some industry sources suggest the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, will select Goodbody Stockbrokers and AIB Capital Markets.

Goodbody and AIB managed last year's flotation of Eircom, then Telecom Eireann, and, despite the share's poor performance since flotation, the Government is perceived to have secured a good price on the sale of its stake in the telecoms company.

Among the other contenders is ABN Amro, which advised the Government on the proposed sale of ICC, although no buyer was found for the State-owned bank.

Another option is NCB stockbrokers, which has recently renewed its team after the departure last year of several key executives to form Merrion Capital.

The next stage in the flotation process will be the negotiation of an employee share option plan.

While the airline's trade unions are likely to seek an additional 14.9 per cent share in the company, on top the 5 per cent acquired when the Cahill plan was being implemented, the Government's position is that only an additional 9.9 per cent of stock in the company will be available.

This would bring the staff shareholding in the airline to 14.9 per cent, the same as the stake held by Eircom's workers.