Bully tactics cannot be tolerated

THE latest development whereby the board of Cork Airport Authority (CAA) has been ostracised from having any influence whatsoever in the extent of the debt it is to be burdened with is very serious and sinister.

With less than two months to go before the new terminal at the airport is due to open, it is ludicrous that its board has been excluded from discussions about the €160 million debt that hangs over it.

This intolerable position, whereby consultants have refused to meet with them, is reflected in the fact that an emergency board meeting has been called by the CAA for this morning to discuss this critical issue.

The uncertainty caused by the question of who is responsible for the debt, and how much, has reached the stage where the intervention of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, not just Transport Minister Martin Cullen, is warranted to sort it out.

The entire controversy is of the Government’s own making since it went back on its own commitment that the airport would be debt free with the completion of the new terminal and facilities there and the break-up of Aer Rianta.

It was guaranteed its independence, as were Shannon and Dublin airports, with the dissolution of Aer Rianta. Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) was to assume the onus of the €160m debt as a once-off.

Cork Airport was to face this new era free of such debt, something which was made absolutely and abundantly clear three years ago by the Government with the announcement of the then Transport Minister Seamus Brennan.

But a change of minister also brought a change of heart and the Government unashamedly reneged on its commitment.

Suspicions about the appointment of consultants BDO Simpson Xavier by the DAA to mediate on the issue of who pays the €160m have been realised. The consultants had a prior association with the DAA and this was one of the reasons why it was seen as totally unacceptable that the company be given this crucial role.

Cynically, Dublin Airport, which is in an overall management position of the three airports until the Aer Rianta position is resolved, is using its financial and political influence to exclude the board in Cork and avoid its commitment on the debt.

It is unacceptable that the consultants refused to meet members of the CAA sub-committee today, apparently at the behest of the DAA and expressly contrary to Martin Cullen’s expressed wish that the board of Cork Airport should engage in the process.

What it constitutes is a snub to the CAA and illustrates the simmering battle which has been ongoing with the DAA, amounting to nothing less than bullyboy tactics and which cannot be tolerated.

The airport is crucial to the economic well-being of the wider Munster area and should not be treated as nothing more than a political football.