Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

A view previously expressed is that Shannon and Cork Airports had been retarded to some extent in their potential for growth because of the manner in which the DAA monopolised the entire aviation activity in the country. The view was that it retained all of the activity for itself and left only a small amount of business to the other airports. The notion of independence would allow more appropriate management in that regard. If as the Minister says the decision to retain Cork Airport within the overall umbrella is purely to get it to a point whereby it could be re-established independently then I would have thought the first step in that regard would be legislation framed in such a way that moved Cork Airport in a particular direction and provided that it be retained as a separate business entity similar to that prescribed earlier in the Bill in respect of Shannon and the two companies that emerged in that regard. The Minister has been quite prescriptive in the methodology used to establish those two companies under a broader umbrella and referred in that regard to issues related to State aid rules. I acknowledge that in relation to Cork Airport there is a difference because two unique companies are not being established. However, in setting Cork Airport on a path towards ultimate independence, the expectation would have been that the entity now being formed, with the localised management structure, would have be supported by a proper budgeting regime that would show its capacity to trade independently at some point, notwithstanding the overhang of the debt, which will be met from general revenues from Aer Rianta International. I do not propose to get hung up on this point but it is an issue of which the Department should be cognisant in terms of proceeding.