Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

I do not accept that. Cork Airport is suffering like the other airports from general economic trends. It has been given a considerable amount of autonomy in its day-to-day decision making on the airport's management. I am unaware of any significant conflicts that have arisen between Cork Airport and the DAA as regards plans to promote the former since the new arrangement was put in place.

The same applies to Cork as applies to Shannon. If it is to go independent, then it must be independent. This means that, at some point in the future, it will be unable to ask the Government for further injections of capital. This would not be allowed under State aid rules.

See this speech in context