Derek McDowell (Labour)

We need to hear a great deal more than that from the Minister. The Labour Party is not concerned about whether the plans are called business plans, strategic directions or risk evaluations. We are concerned about whether the Minister knows what it is he is asking Cork and Shannon Airports to do. I would like an idea of what it is the Minister believes will be the brief given to, for example, Shannon Airport authority. Will it be told to operate the airport as a low cost hub or to maintain current business and shed jobs to reduce the cost base? Will it be told to work on the assumption that the transatlantic stopover will cease? I assume the Minister has or will give some sort of strategic direction to the board. If we knew that, we might be a little less concerned about the business plan.

What we want, and what this House is entitled to from the Minister, is a sense that he knows what he is doing in terms of giving to the boards of Shannon and Cork a clear instruction regarding the drawing up of the business plans. I assume that is what will happen because we will not amend the Bill. The boards must know what is expected when drawing up the business plans. I want to feel confident that the business plans will look credible in a year's time and I am not confident about that at the moment. Looking dispassionately at Shannon Airport, as the consultants have, it is easy to make the case that the company could be insolvent in two or three years time. That is from where most of the concern expressed by the workforce and Members of the Oireachtas comes. We are looking at the status quo. If the Minister is saying, as he stated vigorously in his response yesterday, that he will give the boards their own wings to compete in the marketplace then we must have a sense that he has in mind a strategy which he may have already transmitted to the boards designate.