This article is from page 20 of the 2007-12-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 20 JPG
THE top official in the Department of Transport has moved to quell re- ports that the Shannon Airport Au- thority and Shannon Development are to be merged.
In response to a question from Fine Gael TD Pat Breen at the Dail’s Transport Committee, the Secretary General at the Department of Trans- port, Julie O’Neill, said: “I have heard suggestions along those lines.
It has not been raised as an explicit proposal at this stage.
Ms O Neill was speaking at the Dail ‘Transport Committee last Thursday where senior officials from the department explained why Min- ister Noel Dempsey was not told of Aer Lingus plans to withdraw from the Shannon-Heathrow service.
She added that there was “no spe- cific proposal on my desk or in the department in regard to that issue.”
On the work being done by a top
level Government inter-departmen- tal group on Shannon, senior official, John Murphy said: “A number of de- velopments are being examined in other areas in terms of institutional reform and the investment that needs to be made, whether under Transport 21 or in other areas. Work will pro- ceed on that.
Mr Murphy said in answer to a question from Mr Breen on the €53m economic and tourism development plan for the Shannon region that it
would “be finalised shortly”.
As part of the committee’s plan to produce a report on the future of Shannon, chairman of the Shannon faVbu led maULNeLO UIA CS¥a Ua Ne erclme)er:Net- ce han is to also appear before the com- mittee in the near future.
Ms O’Neill acknowledged that in the context of other challenges facing Shannon airport, the SAA needed the loss of its Heathrow slots “like a hole in the head”.
Deputy Timmy Dooley said that
he was “still baffled as to why they failed to communicate this critical information to the minister”.
He said: “It has had an impact on the region which I represent and, in my mind, will have an extremely se- rious impact in the coming years.
‘While the members of the delega- tion might believe their actions blind sided the minister, those actions have devastated or have the potential to devastate an entire region,’ Deputy Dooley added.