Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This group of amendments relate to the change in the status and the names of Shannon Airport Authority and DAA. Amendments Nos. 2, 10 and 11 relate to re-registering Shannon Airport as a plc rather than a limited company. Essentially, the Shannon Group itself will be a plc but its subsidiaries will be limited companies. That is standard for other semi-State companies, such as Bord Gáis and Irish Water. It is designed to reduce the administrative and accounting burden on those companies.

Amendment No. 2 is a technical amendment to the definition of the Shannon Airport Authority in the definitions section of the Bill. It allows for the application of either the name, "Shannon Airport Authority, public limited company", or the name, "Shannon Airport Authority Limited", depending on whether the re-registration of Shannon Airport Authority to a private limited company has taken place or not.

The purpose of amendment No. 10, the substantive amendment, is to put an appropriate and symmetrical administrative and reporting structure in place to match the new ownership arrangements. The Shannon Group, as the holding company, will be the main reporting body for the group. It will be the nexus of decision-making and direction for the group and will produce a full annual report, etc., and report in detail to the Minister as set out in the legislation. It is normal that the subsidiaries of Shannon Group, as the holding company, be registered as private limited companies. As I mentioned, other State bodies, such as ESB, Bord Gáis and Bord na Móna, use the same approach. Shannon Development is already a private limited company and no change is required to its status.

Amendment No. 11 is a technical consequential amendment to reflect the name change of the Shannon Airport Authority and amendments Nos. 12 to 14, inclusive, are mainly corrections of references to the name DAA plc in earlier legislation.