Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak about the Bill. From my viewpoint of representing the mid-western region, the Bill is long overdue. The reason the Bill is important will have been clearly visible to anyone who has been using Shannon Airport in recent years. The carpark at the airport, which is a good indicator of how an airport is performing, was getting increasingly easier to access, which indicates that fewer people were using it. The separation of Shannon Airport from the Dublin Airport Authority was initiated under the Government as a measure designed to prevent the airport from falling into further decline. In the period since the Booz report was published, the discussions that took place on foot of it in government and at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications proved that the recommendations brought forward and the legislation before us was the right thing to do.

It was a little disappointing to hear some Opposition spokespersons earlier bemoan that the introduction of the Bill is a little late. The simple reality is that they had 14 years to deliver the Bill and did not do it and on their watch, especially in the years from 2007 onwards when the decline in Shannon Airport was very visible.

Shannon Airport has a greater impact than on County Clare. It is on this basis that I speak. Shannon Airport has its foundations in my constituency in the port town of Foynes on the banks of the Shannon Estuary. It was there the first commercial flight from Ireland to North America took off in 1939. It was a Pan American Yankee Clipper Flying Boat which flew to North America via Newfoundland and connected for the first time the west of Ireland and the Shannon Estuary to North America. The mid-western region has since had a strong affinity to the aviation industry and North American regions serviced out of Foynes and Rynanna, now known as Shannon Airport. I am delighted that the Minister, Deputy Leo Varadkar, and others will be in the port of Foynes in the coming weeks to celebrate the 75th anniversary of that historic event, which led, as we know, to the birth of Shannon Airport, now an independent Shannon Airport which has seen passenger numbers increase following severe declines, including from €3.6 million at its peak to €1.4 million at the time this intervention was made.

There is another important Limerick dimension to this, namely, the land bank which the new Shannon Group will own. From my point of view, there is an opportunity now for the Government and the new Shannon Group to work towards the provision of balanced regional development. Shannon Development owns a considerable land bank in my county. For example, in Limerick it owns 250 acres in Plassey, 300 acres in Raheen, 220 acres in Askeaton and 15 acres in both Kilmallock and Newcastle West. Under the stewardship of the very able chairperson, Ms Rose Hynes and chief executive officer, Mr. Neil Pakey, who I believe have transformed the airport, there is a willingness now to transform the industrial remit of the new Shannon Group company.

The Government has in the past few years focused on aviation and aviation services as one of the stimulus that will reverse the neglect to which the mid-western region was subjected for many years under the previous Administration. This is due in no small way to the fact that Minister for Finance happens to be a native of the Foynes area. This focus, together with the designation of the tier 1 port at Foynes, the unification of the Limerick local authorities, the transfer of Shannon Development's role to the new Shannon Group, the establishment of the LEOs, with the educational infrastructure such as Limerick Institute of Technology, LIT, the University of Limerick, Mary Immaculate College, puts the region as a whole in a much stronger position than it was in up to the time this Government took office. If one needed any clear indication of what is happening in the region one need only look to the skyline in the Limerick city area to see that the cranes have returned. They were sorely missed.

I welcome the Bill. I believe some of those who are opposing it do so for opposition's sake, which is their job. It is a pity they do not see the positives in it. Before he left the Chamber Deputy Thomas Pringle asked if the transformation in Shannon was due to real people. I can tell him that the transformation in Shannon is due to real people, real passengers, real flights and real connections being re-established. An important element of that is the removal of the over-reliance on one airline. I believe the new board, CEO and chairperson have been every effective in terms of building a relationship between the airport, which is the most westerly airport on the island of Ireland and, perhaps, in the European Union, and broader fields.

The Minister previously announced funding for the N18, Limerick to Galway Road. Now that Shannon Airport has begotten the independence it needs to drive the economy of the mid western region, there is an opportunity for the Minister to look at how Shannon Airport and the Shannon Foynes Port Company, could achieve more together. I have raised in the House on several occasions with the Minister the need for connectivity of the port of Foynes, which is across the river from Shannon Airport, to the remainder of the national road and rail networks. It is a key part the national infrastructure to which the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport should turn its attention. Everybody is aware of the current condition of the road network. It is in dire need of upgrade. That being said, the connection being achieved between Galway and Limerick through Shannon and Ennis will definitely provide something of a counterbalance for the west-mid-west region to the burgeoning east and south regions. There are those who believe that Shannon Airport is getting an unfair advantage. Historically, it has been starved of inward investment and Government attention or any real reform that would have allowed it to achieve its full potential as Ireland's transatlantic hub.

There are opportunities arising from this. I would like to see the Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation engaging on a much more regular basis with the new Shannon Group when established. In regard to the land bank across the mid-west, particularly in my own county of Limerick, it is important that we do not, in the words of a former Member of this House, have the rabbits running around the land as much as running around the runway. The person to whom those words could be ascribed would himself be smiling today in that it is passengers boarding planes in much larger numbers than was the case up to the point when this Government came to office rather than rabbits that are running around the runway at Shannon Airport. I have no doubt that that growth will continue. This is a good day for the mid-west and Shannon. Perhaps at some point in the future - this may be a little controversial - consideration could be given to the name of the airport reflecting its nearest city. That being said, this is historic legislation that gives one of Ireland's most important pieces of infrastructure its independence and lets it determine its own future, which I wholeheartedly support. I wish the airport and everybody associated with the very best.

See this speech in context