Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

Is it not the case that the board of Cork Airport has submitted a plan that would include carrying a debt of €60 million? Some board members are anxious that the debt would be no more than €20 million. Has the Minister any definitive information in that regard? Is it not the case that the DAA wants Cork to carry up to €100 million in debt?

The Joint Committee on Transport spent about four hours last week examining the debacle about Shannon Airport. It is one of the great mysteries of our time that when the Minister met four aviation area principal officers for a couple of hours upon taking up his new role, the Shannon slots issue did not come forward for discussion. It is an incredible mystery and we may never get to the bottom of it. Given that we are in the situation we find ourselves, why did the Minister not respond yesterday in the budget to the €53 million package put forward by the Shannon business community? Deputy Jan O'Sullivan has raised it many times in the House. That money would be used for route support or marketing support and it would enable Shannon Airport to be in the position where it can become truly independent and viable. We searched the whole budget for that €53 million and went through all the related Departments, yet we could not find any of the money. I thought this would be one of the positive aspects of yesterday's budget, but there was nothing.

Many of us in Opposition, with very little resources, have been trying to tease out the possibility of having some kind of PSO in conjunction with the British Government, as part of the development of the peace process, whereby if Belfast was to be facilitated, Shannon could get back some of its slots. We believe that this is possible under European legislation. Deputy O'Dowd and one of his colleagues have argued this very strongly.

Is the Minister aware of the concern expressed by many workers at Shannon Airport that if the independence of the airport is handled badly, and if the Government fails to support Shannon properly in its future plans, we could end up with vicious cost cutting in the future? This will have grave repercussions for the jobs of workers in Shannon, which has always been a growthcentre.

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