Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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1847. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the funding allocation for each of the regional airports, Donegal, Knock, Kerry and Waterford for each of the years 2018 to 2022. [27470/17]

Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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1848. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the funding requirements for each of the regional airports, Donegal, Knock, Kerry and Waterford for each of the years 2017 to 2022. [27471/17]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1847 and 1848 together.

Funding of the four regional airports at Donegal, Ireland West Airport Knock (IWAK), Kerry and Waterford is provided through five different schemes under the EU approved Regional Airports Programme which operates from 2015 until 2019. Capital funding under the Programme is confined to necessary safety and security related projects to assist the airports in continuing to satisfy safety and other regulatory criteria, subject to the availability of funding.

In addition to the capital support, the Programme also provides for current funding. The bulk of this comprises PSO payments in respect of two air services connecting Dublin with Donegal and Kerry, which are paid to the airline at an approximate cost of € 7.6m annually. The remainder of the current provision is used for operational cost support for the airports in the areas of safety and security.

Budget allocations for capital and current funding under the Regional Airports Programme for 2018 and 2019, are set out in the following table.

Specifically in relation to capital funding, the allocations for the years 2020 to 2022 are included in the Capital Plan 2016-2022 as set out in the following table.

In early 2016, as part of a €4b jobs fund, the Taoiseach annouced an extra €10m for the regional airports to guarantee their future.  This commitment, together with other Programme for Government commitments of a capital nature, are currently under review as part of the Capital Plan mid-term review being undertaken by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. 

In relation to funding requirements, applications for capital funding are invited by the Department on an annual basis. Although some projects may be multiannual in nature, generally the projects applied for are relatively modest in scale (under €1m with most under €500,000).

The four airports have submitted their project applications for 2017 for evaluation.  I expect to make an annoucement on the funding allocations shortly.

The process for current funding is also undertaken on an annual basis and will be completed later this year as is normal under the Programme.