Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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793. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the progress that has been made in the development of an international aviation services centre in Shannon; when new employment will materialise; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4202/14]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware, the Government has decided to establish a new commercial State company, Shannon Group plc, comprising Shannon Airport Authority (SAA) and a restructured Shannon Development. One of the aims of this new entity will be to promote the expansion and development of a broadly-based aviation industry cluster in and around Shannon airport. My Department, in conjunction with the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, is currently finalising a Bill to establish Shannon Group on a statutory basis. I expect to be in a position to publish this Bill next month.

A major success to date of the Government’s initiatives in this area is the break that has been put on the serious passenger decline at Shannon airport. The airport was in constant decline since 2007 and it is a major achievement of the SAA, in its first year of independence, that they halted this decline and are now looking forward to new and sustainable growth at the airport this year and beyond.

Shannon Development was restructured last year in preparation for its incorporation into Shannon Group. A new board of SAA was also put in place and that board is strengthening its senior management team.

I expect that this work and the establishment of the new Shannon Group on a statutory basis will  enable the expansion, over the next few years, of aviation services at Shannon as envisaged  in the Task Force report.