Plans to separate Shannon Airport from the Dublin Airport Authority have been confirmed by Government
At a press briefing at Leinster House The Transport and Enterprise Ministers have outlined proposals to form a new entity in the region incorporating an independent Airport along with Shannon Development giving it a commercial mandate in public ownership.
The Ministers say it will work closely with the IDA and Enterprise Ireland to develop the potential aviation sector and will explore other opportunities with those agencies for further prospective investments in the region.
However there’s no mention of Shannon Airport’s current debt – It was expected that the government would announce either a write down of the debt or leave it with the DAA.
But speaking in the past few minutes Transport Minister Leo Varadkar says details of this have yet to be worked out but insists the plan is to have a debt free airport .
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Around 200 DAA staff are currently employed at Shannon Airport and the plan by government also doesn’t indicate what will happen when the airport comes out from under the authority’s control.
The plan will also see Shannon Development’s functions in relation to indigenous enterprise and foreign direct investment transfer to Enterprise Ireland and IDA respectively while its tourism remit will transfer to Failte Ireland.
This creates uncertainly for the 100 or so employees at Shannon Development in the region.
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Clare Government representatives have welcomed today’s plans.
Former Shannon Mayor and Fine Gael Senator Tony Mulcahy said autonomy would enable Shannon Airport to compete independently for business “without the dead hand of the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA)”.
His government colleague Joe Carey is confident that it will generate new business for the region and will be boosted by a tax incentived international aviation based service centre.
However Clare Fianna Fail TD claims its only spells bad news for Shannon Airport and believes its about job losses, reducing activity at Shannon and scaling back operations
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