The Transport Minister has appealed to SIPTU to call off what he calls its "unnecessary" strike at Aer Lingus and the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA).

Workers at the airline and Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports say they are planning a four-hour work stoppage on Friday March 14th - which could cause travel chaos for thousands of passengers over St. Patrick's weekend.

This long-running dispute is over a deficit in the Aer Lingus and Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) pension scheme of €780 million. Workers at the airline and Dublin, Cork and Shannon Airports voted overwhelmingly to take industrial action earlier this month.

Some 250,000 people arrive at our airports over the St. Patrick's weekend, as many thousands of Irish people head away.

Leo Varadkar says the government remains open to an intervention and says both unions and management should reach a compromise on the deficit in the pensions scheme.

But he says the union are the only party responsible for any disruption and are the only ones who can avert a strike.

While the Social Protection Minister says she hopes work stoppages at Aer Lingus and the DAA can be avoided on a weekend where a "worldwide focus" will on Ireland.

Minister Joan Burton says any industrial action on St. Patrick's weekend will not be in the country's interest.

Padraig O'Ceidigh is the founder of Aer Arann. He has been looking at the financial cost to business of the work stoppage.