Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose an amendment to the Order of Business, that No. 11 be taken ahead of No. 1. No. 11 is the State Airports (Shannon Group) (Amendment) Bill 2020, which proposes to amend the State Airports (Shannon Group) Act to facilitate the appointment of an elected member of Clare County Council to the board of the Shannon Group. Shannon Airport is in the rateable authority of Clare County Council and pays its rates to the council. However, there seems to be a lack of connectivity between the airport authority and Clare County Council. No one is at fault here; it is simply because there is no political representative of the county council on the board.Given that Clare County Council successfully built the Cliffs of Moher Visitor Experience from 600,000 visitors originally up to just under 2 million in 2019, I believe that it has a unique perspective on tourism, its growth and building a tourism product. Having run very successful events such as the Irish Open and participated very fully in the development of the concept of the Wild Atlantic Way, I believe that the appointment of a member of the council to the board of the Shannon Group, in whatever future guise it will have in the aftermath of the Minister's review, is important. The board has not benefited from that knowledge. Issues concerning Shannon Heritage and what happened in recent months may have been avoided if a county councillor elected by the people of Clare had been on the board.

I hope the State Airports (Shannon Group) (Amendment) Bill 2020 will receive the support of Senators across the House because, in situations such as that to which I refer, it is always good to have a county councillor, an elected member, there to articulate the voice of the people of a particular area. Councillors are elected by the people every five years. We need to consider having local authority representatives on various boards of this nature throughout the country.