David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)

Cork Airport is very small compared to Dublin Airport and deserves a chance to commence and build a business debt-free. Even if it is debt-free, the challenge will be great. By lumbering it with a debt of €100 million, it will be almost impossible for it to do business. Will the Minister outline how he expects the airport to service the debt?

The airport needs to develop further and it is not yet finished. If it is to be on its own, how will it build up the assets it requires? I fear the debt will hurt the airport. The only solution I see for it is to increase charges but if it does so, the airlines will do less business with it. They have told us this. It is already almost always more expensive to fly from Cork to London than from Dublin to London. I have checked this many times. Cork Airport is already under pressure and this decision will kill it. It will make it almost impossible to do business not only in the city, but also in the whole region. Tourism will suffer if airlines are not flying to the airport.

I do not know what can be done as it seems the decision has already been made. It took two and half years from when the Minister entered office to make any decision on this matter. There was prevarication and shuffling and when a decision was finally made, it was bad. It is what we and business people in Cork city and the wider region feared. The last thing we want is for Cork Airport to suffer. We hope it can get through this but I fear it will not be able to do so. Businesses in Cork have already gone to the wall and this decision will not help. I await the Minister's response.

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