Airport debt will cripple development

I AM appalled but not surprised that the Government has broken all promises in relation to the creation of a debt-free Cork Airport and is now unfairly demanding that the airport pays a potentially crippling €100m towards the cost of its development.

Following the break-up of Aer Rianta in 2004, the then Transport Minister, Seamus Brennan, said Cork Airport would be transferred to its new independent status debt-free and all assets and contractual arrangements would be transferred to the Dublin Airport Authority.

This now-hollow commitment has been disregarded as the Government has engaged on the U-turn of the century.