Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Dillon.

I thank the Minister for being in the Chamber for these statements on transport.

Shannon Airport is on its knees. It is in a full state of crisis which has deepened since February and March this year. The summer season has been a write-off and there is little hope of the aviation sector improving sufficiently for a bounce back in the autumn and winter months.

Covid presents opportunities to straighten some practices. An employer told me the other day that he was trying to implement a work-from-home policy a few years ago with his staff but it proved problematic. Along came Covid and suddenly the pathway for bringing it forward was there in itself.

In the second quarter of this year, 120 passengers passed through Shannon Airport. That contrasted with 808 through Kerry, 7,800 through Cork Airport and 155,000 through Dublin Airport. Shannon accounted for 0.07% of all inbound air passengers into the State. That is a dramatic and stark fact which shows Shannon's position. It urgently requires Government intervention.

The aviation task force, which the Minister's predecessor established, has reported back. Some of its recommendations have already been implemented, such as those relating to a temporary wage subsidy scheme. The outstanding recommendation is the need for capital funding for Shannon Airport. This has been asked by the airport's chief executive, Mary Considine and her board. Will the Department urgently look at that? It has been with the Government since 7 July. It has been too long for that funding not to have been in place. Covid presents that opportunity for Shannon to redesign aviation policy and appoint a new chairperson to the board. Will the Department look at improving management structures in the airport?

The market share of Shannon continues to slide but this is not unique in other European countries. The Netherlands and Finland implemented aviation strategies and policies to address the overdominance of their capital city airports successfully. Since 2015, Finland and the Netherlands have examined how to redesign their aviation policies to rebalance the proportion of passengers coming through Helsinki and Schiphol airports. In this five-year period, Schiphol's dominance has dropped by 5%. In that same five-year period, Dublin Airport's dominance has risen by 13%.

This just shows that the gap is growing and the crisis is deepening.

There is an opportunity to redesign an aviation policy for Ireland and to leverage the strength of Dublin Airport. We have two possibilities: a fund for all passengers landing in Dublin could be leveraged and allocated proportionally to Shannon and Cork airports, or - and this is what Finland and Holland have gone for - every major airline seeking landing slots in Dublin could be subject to a conditional clause to the effect that once or twice per week the airline would have to fly out of Shannon. If Lufthansa, Finnair or Delta were to fly into Dublin, it would be conditional on the aircraft not only landing and taking off in the capital but operating a service out of Shannon Airport once or twice per week at a minimum.

It would be positive if in the coming days the Minister and his Department once again started using the language of Shannon being an international airport. At some point over the lifetime of the previous Government, a discourse crept in whereby it started to be referred to as a regional airport. That diminishes its status and standing in European and global aviation and its possibility of obtaining State and European supports.

We need to consider a national airport authority. Dublin had a predatory relationship with Shannon Airport even before Covid came about. Separation has not been good for Shannon. That fact has been borne out. There was a famous economic report, the Booz report, which insisted that Shannon would have to have 1.8 million passengers per annum to be sustainable and viable. In its best trading year since separating from Dublin, the airport fell well short of that, so it is not measuring up to that metric. It cannot go back under the wing of Dublin Airport because that relationship has always been quite predatory and there is open competition between the two airports. We need a national airport authority, as some other European countries have.

Aer Lingus and Ryanair in recent weeks have both threatened to pull out of Shannon entirely. Aer Lingus cabin crew have now set up their own task force of cabin and ground crew. They would like to meet the Minister. They are constructive and are coming up with proposals they see as front-line workers to save Shannon. Aer Lingus has approached the Government, and I have been speaking to the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath. The company is looking for liquidity and for the Government to help it through these ailing months. It has received plenty of support in the form of wage subsidy schemes. Any further support Aer Lingus gets from the Government needs to be conditional on it not pulling services from Shannon or Cork airports. We need those services. Aer Lingus is the only transatlantic airline flying out of Shannon at the moment. The minute it goes, Shannon, unfortunately, will go with it. Ryanair also feels like it is the poor relation in this regard. It would argue, to quote one worker, that it is the only reason the lights are still on in Shannon. It also has come to Government with certain asks. It is playing hardball, which I understand that, but we now need to start moving a little closer in that regard.

The IAA has a strong presence in Shannon Airport. It has been brought to my attention, however, that in recent weeks some of the authority's junior staff in and around Shannon, not having a huge workload at the moment and there being no planes in the sky, have been put wearing masks and badges. They are going into catering kitchens and coming through the back doors of places, pouncing on staff and saying, "You never checked my ID." This has only added to the anxiety of companies that are already on tenterhooks and very stressed. That has to stop. It is an aviation authority. Its role belongs in the sky monitoring air traffic, not as police officers going into local businesses.

Railways and trains are very close to the Minister's heart. There has been a proposal since 2010 to have a €1.5 million railway stop in Crusheen. It has had many false dawns. The Minister is quite well acquainted with this situation. I hope that during his term it will be restarted and that he will look at it.

Regarding broadband, we need a better mechanism for communicating the amber and green areas. This falls under the Minister's brief. I hope he can look at it in order that people can have a better gist of when broadband will come to their area.

See this speech in context