This article is from page 23 of the 2010-02-09 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 23 JPG
THE decision to keep the €10 travel tax after the announcement of the Finance Bill has been branded as “short sighted”.
Reacting to the publication of the Finance Bill 2010, Fine Gael’s Deputy Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs and Clare TD Pat Breen has slammed what he terms “the short sighted decision not to axe the €10 air travel tax”.
“This air travel tax is depressing our tourism and aviation industries. It is a disaster, especially for Shan- non Airport where the airport is set to lose several European and UK destinations. Ryanair are on the brink of transferring several of their sun routes to Cork Airport and the franchise agreement which Aer Lin- gus has signed with Aer Arann will see that airline open up several new short-haul routes from both Cork and Dublin. Iam also expecting the year- end passenger figures for Shannon Airport for 2009 to show a signifi- cant decline,” he said.
Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has been a vocal critic of the tax, citing its introduction as one of his reasons for decamping aircraft to other cheaper cost-base destinations in Europe.
This week, O’Leary produced fig- ures revealed by Europe’s airline monitor, showing traffic into Ireland down by 18 per cent, while in Den- mark and Spain, where charges were reduced, traffic grew by seven and
two per cent respectively.
The criticism comes as the region’s tourism concerns prepare to hear what Shannon Development, Failte Ireland and Tourism Ireland have planned for the region for the com- ing year.
The three bodies will brief tourism concerns on their plans on Thursday morning at a special conference in the Radisson Blu hotel.
“Much of the economy in Clare is
dependent on the tourism industry and with the trend in unemployment on the rise again in the county – up four per cent for January 2010, from 10,404 at the end of December 2009 to 10,818 at the end of January 2010 – this tax is affecting our competi- tiveness,” the Fine Gael spokesman renee