Without the right plan Shannon Airport’s future may be grounded

BROADCASTER Terry Wogan can be heard on a radio advertisement these days extolling the virtues of using Shannon Airport as a departure and arrivals point for travellers out of and into the West of Ireland.

It is a gesture of loyalty presumably towards his old area by the Limerick-born British resident, as much as it conveys any financial rewards upon him. You have to wonder how effective it will be, however. Shannon Airport is having big problems that will not be solved by an advertisement voiced by Limerick’s most prominent member of its foreign-based diaspora.

Those problems were demonstrated vividly by the recent decision of the Kerry Group to locate its new 800-plus jobs research and development centre in Kildare. The decision to set up this facility in Ireland is greatly welcomed: it seems that Ireland’s most successful food company had been offered plenty of incentive to locate in Holland. But why, if staying in its native country, did it chose Kildare instead of Kerry, or another Munster location?