Dáil debates

Thursday, 28 June 2007

3:00 pm

Photo of Olivia MitchellOlivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

Currently there is a general drift with regard to our State airports in terms of the Government aviation policy. If there is a long-term vision it is so distant that it is invisible to us all.

I am pleased a redundancy package has finally been agreed in Shannon but the reality is the airport is ill prepared for the open skies agreement. It is already losing out to Knock, and both Cork and Shannon are in a position where they cannot have any independence and are not masters of their own fate. There has been no move to set them up as separate authorities. The issue of whether Cork will have to carry its debt still appears to be up in the air. An announcement was made prior to the election but that seemed to be questioned by Deputies during the election campaign.

The future of those two airports is completely uncertain as they are not masters of their own fate. The focus is off what they should be trying to do, which the Minister has correctly indicated is to attract business into Ireland to ensure we have competitive additional routes and see that we are not dependent on the two major airlines.

It is already clear that the new terminal for Dublin Airport will not be ready by 2009 as it still does not have planning permission. Given that we know how long the planning system takes, will the Minister proceed with the planning process for a third terminal at Dublin Airport and allow the planning for it to commence at this stage? This would be the third privately run terminal. We might have a chance of making progress there.

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