Airport debt row - Row could affect entire region
Members of Cork Airport Authority (CAA) were due to meet with Transport Minister Martin Cullen last evening under what would have to be described as intolerable conditions.
Is it the minister and Government who have the final say on the €160 million debt, or is it the DAA? It is an apt question, as the former seem to have washed their hands of the issue and surrendered their responsibility to the latter.
Without any equivocation, the Government pledged as far back as 2003 that the airport in Cork would be debt-free and autonomous as part of the break-up of Aer Rianta. In plain language, the €160m cost of the new terminal, due to open next month, was to be borne by the DAA.
There was no misunderstanding as to what was official policy as expressed by then Transport Minister Seamus Brennan. But that position was immediately abandoned by his successor, Martin Cullen, without any demur by the Government.
Now DAA chairman Gary McGann has declared that Cork should pay its own debt and, furthermore, he has issued what amounts to an ultimatum, in saying that its independence would be in jeopardy if CAA declined to do so. He would appear to dictate from a position of influence, because the DAA replaced Aer Rianta as the State body with responsibility for Cork, Shannon and Dublin airports.
What seems to be solely concentrating that authority’s attention is the €1.2 billion development programme for the capital’s airport, to the exclusion and serious imminent detriment of Cork Airport, as well as Shannon.
It would appear that both Cork and Shannon are being used to put pressure on the regulator to allow Dublin Airport increase its charges, even though it is precluded from charging more than €6.14 per passenger up to 2009.
Neither is the authority in Cork allowed to manage its own affairs. Having appointed consultants with whom it already had a business relationship to act as mediators on the debt issue, the DAA prevented them from meeting the CAA.
In the interim, Cork Airport has suffered economically, with the reduction by Ryanair of its Liverpool service at a loss of 20,000 passengers annually. It entails a loss of about €8m in revenue to the wider Munster region which depends intrinsically, both from a commercial and tourism aspect, on the airport.
Should the Government continue to shrug its shoulders in abandonment of its policy to the DAA, the Cork authority has warned about implementing considerable increases, something which has already influenced one airline to reduce its services out of Cork.
If it is forced to continue that policy, irreparable economic damage will eventuate, caused by having to sustain such an intolerable debt when it was never expected to do so.
Local interests, both business and political - and especially Fianna Fáil and PD sources - seem to have made no impression to date on the importance to the Munster region of the airport.
The issue is too critical for the airport to be allowed continue on a playing pitch that is patently unequal.
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