zooflyer I think you are wrong when you say "I guess this says it all...". It does not look to me like it says what I think you are claiming, which I think is that the pilot shortage is changing the situation in relation to type ratings.
What the letter from the CEO of Aer Lingus says is that the airline (a) will honour its existing commitments to its former cadets, and less clearly, that (b) IALPA has been very clear about the fact that it expects Aer Lingus to honour those commitments. This does not mean that there are not a very large number of brand new, low hour CPL/IR pilots out there desperate for a job who will pay for a rating, for a job, work for free, etc. The wannabe market will not vanish and I don't know where you got the following notion from (because it is just plain wrong):
0 candidates since JAA and privatisation made pilot training much too expensive
There are lots of pilot candidates out there, both for jobs and for JAR licence training.