Airport plan set to take off as FF and PDs do deal

Michael O’Farrell, Political Reporter

Barring a last-minute hiccup, sources in both camps last night said a deal had been agreed and would be formally passed by Cabinet tomorrow.

Crucially, the package will include a firm commitment to an independent third terminal at Dublin airport within a set timeframe as a concession to the PDs’ insistence on competing facilities.

In the meantime, a new Pier D will be added to the existing terminal by 2007 while the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) will build a second terminal to handle at least 10 million passengers by 2009.

While the operation of the second terminal will be then put out to open tender, the DAA, with the advantage of having built the facility, will be favoured to win the contract.

Finally, the Government will hire an investment bank to pave the way for the controversial sale of a majority stake in Aer Lingus to release funds for capital investment in the airline.

However, even before the final details of the package are announced, the Government faces two possible legal challenges on anti-competitive grounds.

Ryanair deputy chief executive Michael Cawley said the deal would not result in competition and pledged legal action should the DAA be allowed operate the second terminal.

“We will take it into whatever court is appropriate. They are acting in a completely anti-competitive way and if they are going to take that decision we are going to take action against them,” he said.

The McEvaddy brothers, who want to build a terminal for 30 million passengers on land west of the airport, have also reactivated a complaint to the EU Commission.

SIPTU president Jack O’Connor last night said the union had an agreement from the Government that any future facility at Dublin Airport, regardless of its ownership, would not see a diminution of standards of employment.

The Opposition said the deal was a political fudge.

Fine Gael transport spokesperson Olivia Mitchell said the PDs had deluded themselves and only secured a false peace.

“We’ve had this long debate and what was it all about? What the PDs are getting is not worth having and what the Taoiseach is getting is not what he thinks he has. The national interest again has come way down the list,” she said.

Labour transport spokesperson Róisín Shortall said a third terminal was nonsense. “It’s a sop to the PDs to keep them quiet,” she said.

Deputy Shortall welcomed the Pier D announcement but said the sale of Aer Lingus shares was “a monumental mistake.”