Aer Lingus chairman John Sharman is to appear before an emergency meeting of the Oireachtas transport committee tomorrow to discuss a controversial leaked memo which examined how the State airline could go about cutting more than 1,000 staff from its workforce.
Mr Sharman is breaking off from his summer holidays to address the meeting, at which he will attempt to explain the context of the 30-page memo, which included a 12 point plan, such as changing shift patterns to encourage more staff to take voluntary redundancies.
He will also address allegations that senior managers had also discussed the creation of "tacky" jumpsuit and T-shirt uniforms for staff.
He has consistently maintained that the plan was never implemented, and was no more than a discussion document.
Aer Lingus staff representatives, who are also to appear at tomorrow's meeting, are expected to contradict this and claim that aspects of the plan were implemented.
Siptu's national industrial officer, Michael Halpenny, who will lead his union's delegation, said last week that the plan was there "in black and white".
"Despite the protestations of management it appears to have been part of the whole business plan cost-cutting exercise originated by the management team including the three senior executives who have since left."
Yesterday the chairman of the Oireachtas transport committee John Ellis confirmed that Mr Sharman would be appearing before the committee, and that members hoped he could clarify a series of concerns that had been raised regarding the memo.
"I think it shows his commitment to clearing up the issues raised by this memo, which I hope the committee will be able to do at the meeting," Mr Ellis said.
On Thursday Mr Sharman wrote to staff to express regret over the July 2004 memo.
The memo listed 12 "environmental push factors" which could encourage staff to leave, and was commissioned by the then management team headed up by Willie Walsh, who is now chief executive of British Airways.