Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise an issue about Shannon Airport and balanced regional development. This week in The Clare Champion, Limerick Leader, and no doubt other local newspapers in the mid-west there are one and a half page broadsheet advertisements devoted to what appears to be a joint Dublin Airport and Aer Lingus marketing campaign to persuade those of us stuck in the rain in the mid-west to fly off to Spain through Dublin Airport. It even explains how we can bypass Shannon Airport by getting various bus services to Dublin Airport. It is a raw and unapologetic attempt to cannibalise passengers from Shannon Airport. This is not the first campaign like this. One was also carried out last year. The Dublin Airport Authority operates Dublin and Cork airports. It has a throughput of passengers of 27 million. The throughput of passengers through Shannon is 1.7 million. The irony of this is that Cork and Dublin airports are publicly owned while Shannon Airport is independent.

Fair enough, one might say. This is a competitive world and dog can eat dog. However, we have a commitment from this Government to develop rural Ireland and promote balanced regional development, which was enshrined in A Programme for a Partnership Government.

The Action Plan for Rural Development has been published. This is the first ever whole-of-Government strategy aimed at delivering real change for people in rural Ireland and, in February, the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, Deputy Coveney, launched Ireland 2040, a consultative process, in an effort to look ahead and to shape long-term planning for the country over the next 20 years. All of these plans are necessary to protect our future, yet people living in rural Ireland wonder whether there will be anything worthwhile left in their areas by the time they are implemented - if they are implemented. The fabric of rural Ireland is unravelling, with emigration happening as a result of a lack of infrastructure, a lack of job opportunities and the uncertainty which Brexit brings, particularly to our agricultural community.

The Shannon Airport situation is a good example of a large, State-owned airport in Dublin pillaging business from a small State-owned company in the mid-west. Somebody must shout "Stop" and ask if this is acceptable. I hope the Taoiseach will tell me that this kind of behaviour on the part of a largely publicly-owned company against a smaller neighbour is not acceptable and that activities such as this, which undermine Shannon's viability, are incompatible with the promotion of balanced regional development in the mid-west.

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