Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 9, 31, 41 and 58 together.

These questions relate to the separation of Shannon Airport from the Dublin Airport Authority. As the Deputies will recall, following the Government decision in principle in May to separate Shannon Airport from the Dublin Airport Authority and merge it in a new entity with a restructured Shannon Development, a steering group of senior officials from five key Departments was established to bring forward proposals for the implementation of that decision.

As part of the restructuring of Shannon Development, the latter's functions in respect of enterprise supports, both for domestic companies and inward investment, will transfer to Enterprise Ireland and the IDA respectively while the agency's tourism functions, including the regional tourism offices, will transfer to Fáilte Ireland. In this regard, last month the Government approved proposals from the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to amend the IDA Act 1986 to enable Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland to carry out enterprise development functions in the Shannon Free Zone. These changes will bring a more integrated, streamlined and focused discipline to the delivery of both enterprise support and tourism services in the region.

The steering group is being assisted by two task forces which were established in June. The aviation business development task force is seeking out and evaluating aviation-linked business opportunities that could be associated with the new Shannon entity while the change management task force is developing proposals for transitional arrangements and for the appropriate corporate, managerial and operational structures of the new entity, including matters related to IT, HR, finance and property.  This latter task force is also drawing up proposals for the transfer of Shannon Development functions to the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and Fáilte Ireland.

I understand that these groups are well advanced in their examination of the range of issues that must be assessed in some detail in order to arrive at the best way forward for the new entity at Shannon. I also understand that the timescale for the task forces to submit their proposals remains mid November. When those proposals have been evaluated by the steering group, both myself and the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton, will revert to Government before the end of the year with detailed proposals including an implementation strategy for the establishment of the new entity.

In the meantime, Shannon Airport is continuing its business operations including maintaining its existing airline customers and attracting new business where possible. This includes a range of schemes on offer to incentivise airlines to increase services and passenger numbers at the airports.  In addition to the usual schemes, a new growth incentive scheme was introduced last year by the DAA at the three State airports which is due to run until 2014.  This scheme is one element of the three pronged strategy announced last year by Government as part of the jobs initiative to encourage inbound tourism.  In this regard, the recent decision by United Airlines to operate a new Chicago-Shannon service five times a week next summer is very welcome.

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