Varadkar accused of making airports’ boards ‘redundant’

TRANSPORT Minister Leo Varadkar was last night accused of making the boards of Cork and Shannon airports redundant.

Fianna Fáil transport spokesman Timmy Dooley made the claim after the Department of Transport confirmed that the boards of Cork and Shannon have been reduced, with four employees of the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) making up the membership of the two boards.

The department confirmed that no replacements are to be made at this time for the chairmen, Brian O’Connell at Shannon and Gerry Walsh at Cork, or for the other minister-appointed board members who stepped down at the end of their term in December.

The department also confirmed that head ofoperations at the DAA, Niall McCarthy and DAA chief financial officer Ray Gray are to sit on the Shannon board. DAA deputy chief executive Oliver Cussen and Cork airport chief executive Pat Keohane are to make up the Cork airport board.

Mr Dooley said: “The minister has spoken a lot about giving Cork and Shannon levels of autonomy, but all he has done is removed whatever level of autonomy they had by closing down the two boards.

“The only members of the boards are DAA employees and the boards are now without outside or regional influence.

“At the same time, Minister Varadkar has stated that it may not be until the back end of the year to bring forward legislation concerning separation.

“This is a wholly unacceptable situation that the boards of the two airports are being left to wither on the vine as the airports fight for their economic survival.”

He added: “Currently there is no capacity for either airport to have a long-term strategic approach and this has potentially extremely negative consequences for the regions concerned.”

Mr Varadkar responded last night, saying: “The terms of the outgoing boards of Shannon Airport Authority and Cork Airport Authority came to an end last December.

“The Government is currently considering how best to re-structure the airports. There is no point in appointing new boards until they have a clear role and function. The Fianna Fáil way of doing things is over.”

Mr Varadkar told the Dáil last week he will engage with unions and potential investors before deciding on the future of the airports. He said it is intended that they will remain in public ownership.