Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Spring for raising this matter and I know he has championed the need for development and employment in his county and constituency. I appreciate the importance of this issue and know why the Deputy has raised it today. The Deputy has given some background information on the bodies involved and, for the benefit of the House and the record, I want to make some points on Shannon Group and its role in Kerry Technology Park.

The facility is owned and managed by Shannon Commercial Enterprises, which was formerly Shannon Development. Shannon Commercial Enterprises is a subsidiary of the newly formed Shannon Group which was established as a commercial State company. Therefore, the management of Kerry Technology Park is a matter for Shannon Group and Shannon Commercial Enterprises and I have no role in the detailed running of the business or its operational decisions.

Following the recent enactment of the State Airports (Shannon Group) Act 2014, Shannon Airport was separated from the Dublin Airport Authority, DAA, and a new State-owned commercial entity, Shannon Group plc, was established. It incorporated two main wholly-owned subsidiaries: Shannon Airport Authority and a restructured Shannon Development, which was renamed Shannon Commercial Enterprises under the Act.

The Deputy will recall from debates in this House that the rationale for establishing the Shannon Group on this basis was to support a new future for Shannon and the mid-west region, as envisaged by the Shannon aviation business development task force, which reported in November 2012.

An independent Shannon Airport, coupled with a restructured Shannon Development, has the potential to develop and grow passenger traffic and the route network. A major consideration in this decision was the serious decline in passenger traffic at the airport in recent years. In its first year as an independent airport, Shannon has succeeded in reversing this decline and is now focussing on growing passenger numbers. The restructuring of Shannon Development and the streamlining of its activities is complementary to the growth of the airport business. This restructuring involved transferring the part of the business related to indigenous enterprises and foreign direct investment to Enterprise Ireland and the IDA respectively. In addition, the tourism part of the former Shannon Development's business was transferred to Fáilte Ireland. This restructuring laid the foundations for a more focussed role for the new entity Shannon Commercial Enterprises in managing and developing its property portfolio including the Shannon Free Zone adjacent to the airport. Kerry Technology Park, among other properties, was also retained in Shannon Commercial Enterprise's property portfolio, in line with the restructuring strategy.

Since the enactment of the new legislation the newly formed Shannon Group now has a statutory obligation, under Part 2, section 10(1)(b), of the State Airports (Shannon Group) Act 2014, to optimise the return on its land and property and on its shareholding in its subsidiary Shannon Commercial Enterprises. Significant work has already been carried out in Shannon to prepare the ground for the group to be established on this independent statutory basis, and that effort and momentum must now be maintained if Shannon Group is to make a success of this enterprise, including the full exploitation of the commercial potential of Kerry Technology Park. As I have already said, my role in this was to provide the legislative framework and the statutory footing to enable Shannon Group and its subsidiary Shannon Commercial Enterprises to do this. I have every confidence in Shannon Group's capacity and commitment to fulfilling its statutory obligations and to meeting the objectives laid down for it.

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