Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)
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Question 66: To ask the Minister for Transport and the Marine the position in relation to the debt burden at Cork Airport; if he will personally intervene to resolve this issue. [18100/07]

Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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I understand that the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) has been advised by consultants on an appropriate financing proposal that would facilitate the statutory objective of the separation of Cork Airport from the DAA in a timely manner, consistent with the requirements of the State Airports Act 2004 and the Companies Acts. I am aware that the outcome of this analysis was that Cork Airport could sustain a certain level of debt while remaining a very viable enterprise. I understand that the board of the Cork Airport Authority also engaged consultants to examine further the issue of the Cork debt.

Clearly, the debt issue is crucial to the business planning process which will have to be addressed by the Cork airport board and the DAA, in the first instance, before any business plan is submitted to me and the Minister for Finance for our approval under the State Airports Act 2004. The Government position is that the funding of the new terminal and other works at Cork Airport will have to take account, not only of what is commercially and financially feasible for Cork Airport, but also what is commercially and financially feasible for Dublin Airport.

If the Cork Airport Authority is to achieve autonomy in the foreseeable future, it will have to accept responsibility for a reasonable portion of the outstanding debt, in return for the substantial assets to be transferred to it on separation. In deciding what level of debt is to be borne by Cork, it will have to be manifest to all concerned that it is a manageable debt burden that would not put at risk the airport's commercial future. Responsibility for the production of the business plans rests with the authorities. My function, under the Act, is to consider the plans, in conjunction with the Minister for Finance, once they have been submitted.