Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The way we structure legislation is very important. My first impression of the Bill is that while there are connected matters within it, they are only tenuously related to each other. We have Shannon and Cork airports, DAA pensions, the Cape Town Convention and tour operators all falling under one Bill. It is important to have well crafted and tidy legislation. We must consider how people will view the legislation looking back and how easy it will be to navigate. I have concerns that a great deal is going on in the Bill. I would like to see the ratification of international conventions provided for in stand-alone legislation. It makes sense. When legislation contains as many matters as the Bill, it can be confusing.

Rather than making a typical Second Stage statement, I will raise a number of questions. I would like to know, with regard to the establishment of Shannon Group, what the broad philosophy will be in terms of its ownership into the future. Is it intended that it will be 100% State-owned or is there a plan? There are a number of things in the Bill that suggest otherwise. I would appreciate it if the Minister dealt with that issue in his response to the debate. Will the legislation prevent Shannon Group from selling any shares to non-governmental organisations or diluting its 100% ownership of any of the four subsidiary companies - Shannon Commercial Enterprises, Shannon Heritage, IASC, and Shannon Airport? Will the Minister explain why it is forbidden for the shares in Shannon Group to be issued without ministerial consent, while that is not the case with Cork Airport? There is something different happening with both. Why is one approach being taken with one and another approach to the other?

It is clear that the Government has bent over backwards to ensure the smooth setting up of this new entity, Shannon Group. The €100 million debt owed by Shannon Airport to the DAA has been cancelled or, in any event, what was a shared liability will be a DAA liability. We already know the DAA is struggling. There is a huge pensions black hole. Is this going to contribute to a difficulty for the authority? When a sizeable portion of Aer Lingus was sold off in 2005 and 2006, the CEO made the point that some of the money should have been used at that point to cover what was known to be a large hole in the pension fund. That did not happen under the previous Government and the problem has become worse. I ask the Minister to address the matter.

We have transferred 75% of the staff costs of Shannon Development to other public bodies. What is the exposure of organisations such as Tallaght Institute of Technology? Was it a natural fit and did they require the personnel transferred to them? I am not 100% sure of the position. We seem to have transferred the pensions liability to the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. What is the exposure in that regard? In relation to Shannon Group, we have transferred the entire €200 million property portfolio to Shannon Development. There is a big asset transfer, but it must go there as it will be the basis for the legal entity. All Shannon Airport lands will also be transferred to the Shannon Group. There is also Shannon Heritage. The Department of Finance is foregoing taxation which might accrue in a commercial sense, which I understand as it is almost accounted for there. However, it appears that all of those things add up to a significant question mark. The question mark is over packaging something. It is fine if it makes it viable and it functions as an entity in its own right, but if we are packaging it to strip out any of the liabilities and make it attractive for sale, I have serious concerns. I would like to know what the objective is in order for me to establish whether I can support the legislation.

I am absolutely in favour of balanced regional development. The airport has the potential to be a serious asset for the region, as it has been in the past. The region is not well populated, which is part of the problem. The Minister announced two years ago a plan to merge the Shannon Airport Authority with the Shannon Development free zone. At the time, he said:

We want to recapture the pioneering spirit of the people who gave us the airport and the Shannon Free Zone concept, so that we can provide exciting and innovative opportunities which benefit business, tourism, and job creation in the region, and across the country.

It is good for the greater Dublin area to have balanced regional development. It is not one at the expense of the other. The congestion in Dublin would give way to a more normal arrangement if there were more balanced regional development.

This must be seen as a driver for the region. I am very concerned that instead of being a resource for the mid-west, it may become a nicely packaged opportunity for an investment fund to purchase, with some of the costs accumulated to date having been stripped out.

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