Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In speaking about the national recovery and resilience plan I want to focus on the need for a clear channel of the income to be allocated to Shannon Airport and the preservation of its jobs and connectivity. The mid-west region and my constituency in particular are reeling following the announcement by Aer Lingus to close its Shannon base. This was the latest, but by no means the first, in a series of neo-liberal market-led decisions that have gravely threatened the vitality and saliency of the mid-west region and the hospitality, tourism and foreign direct investment economies based there.

Ireland is set to secure €915 million. This will be sub-divided into grants and loans. As per the EU mandate, these grants must be invested in projects that are essentially future-proofing the island as it emerges into the post-Covid-19 world. This funding offers a real opportunity to safeguard the future of Shannon Airport. We saw the repercussions of what happened when the Government sold its 26% stake in our national airline in 2010. We have seen what has happened when Shannon Airport was ejected from the remit of the Dublin Airport Authority. At the time it was mooted as a move that would ensure growth and expansion. We now know that to be not true.

The dialogue around Shannon keeps referring to the airport as a regional airport, but Shannon is an international airport with inter-continental and transatlantic routes. It boasts the longest runway and was the first to pioneer a sensory room in the country. When we needed personal protective equipment delivered, the airplane had to land in Shannon. This should give us an idea of how valuable the airport is. In 2009 the footfall through Shannon was 30,000 more than Cork Airport, but by 2019 it was 900,000 less than Cork. To say the separation from the DAA has disadvantaged Shannon is an understatement.

In 2017 the economic footprint of Shannon was €3.8 billion. Given the development of the Wild Atlantic Way as a tourism route, the airport has potential for far more than 5% of overall national flights, the volume it received in 2017. The airport must be seen as a critical element of the infrastructure network. I call on the Minister to provide for positive discrimination measures to be taken and for enough of this funding to be dedicated to future-proofing Shannon Airport and the micro-economies of the mid-west region.

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