Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I raised the issue of Shannon Airport with the Minister in the House approximately three weeks ago. Others have raised it in the intervening period. I agree that the establishment of a task force at this late stage will only serve to drag out the process. What is the Minister or his departmental officials doing? What is it that they do not know that a task force can tell them? We know that the economy is falling of a cliff and that airport business has fallen off a cliff. These businesses, workers and their families need certainty. The local economy in Limerick and in the mid west need certainty and we need to have connectivity. We need a plan in regard to the funding of our airports to keep them functioning into the future. It is incumbent on me as a Deputy representative of Limerick to advocate for this. It is vital to the mid-west region that Shannon Airport is maintained to international standards in terms of runway capacity, passenger and baggage handling capacity and pre-clearance facilities. We need this for our business and connectivity and for tourism and balanced regional development, which is important but has been neglected for years. I will not pretend that all was well at Shannon Airport pre-Covid-19.

It was not, because the separation of Shannon Airport from the Dublin Airport Authority was far from the spectacular success which was sold to us. The business case and numbers which were predicted did not materialise. It is regrettable that the people who advocated against it, including some within Fianna Fáil and SIPTU, for example, were drowned out and not listened to. Local authorities and chambers of commerce became experts on aviation, and we can now see that the passenger market share for Shannon Airport has fallen in comparison with Dublin Airport and others. The mooted 2.5 million passengers who were going to come through Shannon Airport simply never materialised. We need some blunt honesty on this issue and we need a proper look back and review as to why that did not happen.

The Minister also mentioned Shannon Heritage, which is part of the Shannon Group. It operates a number of sites, maybe 14 or 15 between the mid-west, Galway and Dublin, but some of them are only going to open for a two-month period. That is not good enough. We need those sites to stay open for far longer to allow even domestic tourism, which we are hoping to spur on.

I would like the Minister to address what he is going to do to secure the future and viability of Shannon Airport. Has he engaged with the workers and stakeholders around Shannon Airport? They need to know what is going on. Has he engaged with the aircraft leasing industry? Almost 60% of international aircraft leasing is managed out of Ireland and many workers are involved in that. Has the Minister engaged with the airlines, Ryanair and Aer Lingus in particular? There are 100 Aer Lingus staff based out of Shannon Airport, so that needs to be done. I want to impress on the Minister that the Shannon region, including Limerick, which I represent, and the mid-west does not want to be disadvantaged. We need certainty that we will not be left behind in the Government's approach to securing the future viability of Shannon Airport.

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