Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

In the discussions last year and ever since, there has not been any change in that. As the debts of Shannon and Cork airports related to Aer Rianta they were considered to be the responsibility of Dublin Airport and were to be taken into account as part of the Dublin operation. Obviously the business plans and the business programmes have to come back but the question in Cork where they were building a new terminal at a cost of €150 million was how would this be funded? That may not be so much the case in Shannon. It was always an issue as to whether the Dublin Airport Authority would be able to handle a second terminal as it needed a cash flow to be able to fund any debt it would incur which would be exacerbated by the fact that the original debts, liabilities or capital acquisitions, whatever one wishes to call them, would be carried forward. That was the position then and I understand it is still the position. The authorities must reflect it in their business plans.

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