This article is from page 29 of the 2008-09-16 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 29 JPG
KILRUSH’S longest serving public representative has called for the res- ignation of the CEO of Aer Lingus.
Clir Jack Fennel (Ind) was back in the council chamber on Thursday – quiet literally fighting fit after a short illness.
The father of Kilrush Town Coun- cil had one opponent in mind – Der- mott Mannion.
“T thought we would never reach this day again,’ he told councillors at Thursday night’s monthly meeting, referring to the current recession.
““T know two families at the moment
whose members are working in Lon- don, and come home every weekend. The only way they have back into Shannon is at 12 midnight on Friday night,” he said.
“You have to go to Cork on Monday to leave Ireland for London,” added Cllr Fennell.
The Independent councillor said that the afternoon flight from Lon- don into Shannon was no good to workers as they could not work a full day and get that flight.
‘“T would like to see them fly out on Monday morning from Shannon and back in early Friday evening to see eles Dam e-NOe ND Blon ie
The Independent town councillor criticised Aer Lingus’s decision to move the Shannon-Heathrow slots to Belfast for what it described as com- mercial reasons.
“It is in Belfast now and at the stage where it is offering free flights,” he HOE
“T call on Mr Mannion to resign for coming out with a statement that it was a commercial move,’ he said.
Cllr Fennel told the meeting that the economy in the county had been damaged significantly, and a lot of non-national workers that had lived in Kilrush had now gone to London to find work in the build up to the
2012 Olympics.
“If you look in the shop windows you will see how many apartments are for rent,” he said.
He proposed a motion that Kilrush Town Council call on the Miunis- ter for State Tony Killeen (FF) and Deputy Timmy Dooley (FF) to put a motion to the Dail that would recall at least two daily flights from “our national airline, Aer Lingus to Shan- non Airport”.
He also asked that this motion be sent to the other local authorities in the county for support.
The motion was supported unani- mously.