Since wage stickiness generates unemployment or intersectoral labour transfer in excess of that associated with a flexible-wage adjustment process, it is frequently argued that declining industries should be subsidised to some extent to replicate the behaviour of undistorted economies. We discuss three arguments against this “traditional” viewpoint, and find that each applies in the cases of Irish Steel and Team AerLingus. Intervention, we find, far from alleviating the competitiveness problems that these sectors face, actually worsens them. The cost of protecting jobs in Irish Steel is pushed up over time, and intervention in Team Aer Lingus postpones the necessary adjustments, making further intervention inevitable.