John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if the recently announced commercial package for Shannon Airport was submitted to the European Commission's Competition Authority for advance clearance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [57899/12]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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As I have pointed out on a number of previous occasions, there is no support package in place for Shannon Airport.

The Deputy will recall that the Minister for Finance announced in his Budget speech last month that he will be putting in place measures to facilitate the construction of hangars and ancillary facilities that will be key to attracting additional aviation sector organisations. These measures are aimed at attracting investment to Ireland and will be available on a national basis to all airports that wish to avail of them.

As regards Shannon Airport, the Deputy will be aware now that the assets and business of that airport were transferred from the DAA to the Shannon Airport Authority (SAA) on 31st December last. My Department is now proceeding to draft legislation to provide for the merger of the SAA with a restructured Shannon Development to form a new State-owned commercial entity as decided by Government in November and it is my aim to have that new entity established on a statutory basis by July of this year.

Shannon Development and Shannon Airport Authority are both owned by the State and the State, on behalf of its citizens and taxpayers, is currently faced with these two ailing companies that are not realising their potential to make a contribution to the economy of the wider region.  The State is, therefore, restructuring its assets to make better use of them as a catalyst for the development of sectoral opportunities, particularly within the aviation sector. This restructuring involves no more than a re-ordering of assets in State ownership and on this basis is not seen as involving State Aid and hence there was no requirement to approach the European Commission.