The planned two-hour work stoppage by SIPTU staff at the State's three largest airports tomorrow has been suspended.
The two-hour stoppage was called by SIPTU to disrupt flights carrying EU justice and home affairs ministers to a high-level meeting in Dublin. But Aer Rianta said that none of the ministers attending the event were due to fly in during the strike period.
After three days of intensive and sometimes acrimonious discussions among union officials representing Aer Rianta workers, SIPTU general president, Mr Jack O'Connor warned that the threat of action remains.
He said the unions remained "deeply skeptical" about plans to break Aer Rianta into three companies running Dublin, Shannon and Cork airports separately.
But after "thoroughly" considering clarification of assurances about the security of workers terms and conditions of employment from the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, Mr O'Connor said the planned action was deferred.
Unions remain concerned about the exact plan for the break-up of the company, maintaining the Minister is basing his promises on "a business plan that he hasn't got".
Mr O'Connor said the Government's undertaking to provide financial and other information about the plan and a promise to hold off on finalising the legislation needed for the break-up to go ahead had created some breathing space.
But he expressed his concern about the Government's track record in dealing with the issue. "Having previously deferred action on November 4th to enter a process which turned out to be fruitless, we must emphasise our determination to defend our members' right to take industrial action when necessary, if what ensues after today fails to deliver tangible results within a reasonable time frame," Mr O'Connor said.
Worries about the commercial viability of the companies in the event of a break-up intensified yesterday when Mr Brennan rejected an Aer Rianta proposal for the company and the Department of Transport to work on a business plan together.
Green Party transport spokesman Mr Eamon Ryan said Mr Brennan was wrong to summarily dismiss the move by the Aer Rianta, which the company claimed might avert the stoppage. He said the Minister was motivated by a long-running feud with the Aer Rianta board despite it being made up of Government party appointees.
"The minister's real intent is to clip the wings of Aer Rianta in Dublin. This strategy would ensure that a private operator builds the proposed new terminal at the airport rather than allow Aer Rianta develop their alternative Pier D proposal," Mr Ryan said.
Mr Brennan responded to the Aer Rianta proposal by reiterating recent comments by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, when he said business plans for the three airports were already being implemented.
But Fine Gael transport spokesman Mr Denis Naughten accused the Taoiseach of misleading the public by claiming that the Government has set out its policy and called on him to withdraw his comments. "The Taoiseach has now joined Minister Brennan in flying by the seat of his pants on aviation-sector policy and is misleading the public in the process," he said.
The economic evaluation carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers on the proposed break-up "raised serious questions about the Minister's plans" and should be published, he said.