Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 7 October 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport

Shannon Group: Chairperson Designate

Photo of Gerry HorkanGerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I hope Mr. Ó Céidigh is appointed chair of the Shannon Group. The group is primarily made up of the airport and everything around it but it is also has a big property portfolio and Shannon Free Zone, which used to be known as the Shannon Development Zone. The group is much bigger than the airport. I do not have enough knowledge about the airport, and I am sure other members of the committee may have more knowledge about it, but not necessarily as much as they could or should have.

Dublin's growth is unhealthy when compared with the rest of the country in terms of airports and many other things. Dublin, as much as anywhere else, needs better balance and there must be a better regional balance between all of the regions. I say that because there are challenges when an area is too busy in terms of house prices being too high, not having enough school places and everything being stressed in a different way. In fact, many people fly out of Dublin Airport because they do not see an alternative, so perhaps Shannon Airport could become an alternative. It is a vicious circle the other way. Nobody flies out of Shannon Airport so, therefore, there are no routes but it is because there are no routes that nobody flies out of Shannon Airport. Let us consider the reverse where people start flying out of Shannon Airport, more routes become available and people realise the airport is fantastic and they can avail of the services very simply.

I do not think anyone has touched on the enormous history of Shannon Airport. I refer to the fact Irish coffee was invented at the airport and that duty free was established there as a concept. It is a fact that Shannon Airport was part of the route through which millions of post-war passengers travelled through. At that time almost everybody who flew out of Paris, London or Amsterdam had to stop-off at Shannon Airport, then Newfoundland and so on. Shannon Airport had a very ingenious relationship with Aeroflot in the 1980s. A Soviet fuel farm was built, the tankers came in, Aeroflot paid for its landing charges in fuel, and fuel was sold to Aer Rianta which sold it on again.

Shannon Airport has been incredibly innovative. Guinness Peat Aviation, GPA, was not the ultimate success but it was based at Shannon. Tony Ryan was very insistent on that and he went on to become Mr. Ryanair. Shannon Airport has an enormous amount of aviation history.

I appreciate that the role of the chair of the Shannon Group is non-executive, which is hands-off as much as it is hands-on, and that the chair is not a chief executive. From the perspective of a transport committee, and really from an Ireland Inc. perspective, it is not Dublin versus Shannon, which Mr. Ó Céidigh referenced earlier. I know that because I listened to all of the contributions in my office. It is Ireland versus other European hubs in the competition for business from Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Qatar or from the west coast of America and so on. I want to put it on record that I do not believe there will be a kickback from Dublin, the Dublin region or Dublin representatives. Many Dublin representatives come from the country or their parents or grandparents did, so these representatives want more balanced regional development. A visit to Shannon Airport would benefit this committee. I wish Mr. Ó Céidigh very well. I did not have questions because my questions were already asked.

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