This article is from page 12 of the 2011-11-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
ALMOST 250 families will no longer be moving to Shannon as the proposed decentralisation of the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) has been shelved. The move, which would have virtually doubled the IAA’s staff numbers in the county, has been indefinitely shelved with the proposed move of Enterprise Ireland to Shannon also now under threat.
A review of the proposed Enterprise Ireland move to Shannon will also take place in the coming months, with no indication as of yet as to whether that proposed decentralisation will go ahead or not.
There was some good news for Kilrush, however, as it was announced that the movement of staff from the Office of the Revenue Commissioners to the town will not be effected.
The Irish Aviation Authority already employs around 240 people at its operations in Shannon and Newmarket. The organisations corporate headquarters are located in Dublin and it was these employees who were to move to Shannon.
“The Irish Aviation Authority have about 700 people employed all over the country. Already in Clare we have a centre at Ballycasey in Shannon and at the North Atlantic Communications centre at Ballygirreen in Newmarket. Our corporate headquarter are based in Dublin and it was this headquarters which was proposed to move to Shannon,” said a spokesperson from the IAA.
The IAA currently employs around 170 people at the Air Traffic Centre in Ballycasey and at Shannon Airport itself and a further 70 people are employed at the radio centre in Ballygirreen. A source close to the IAA told The Clare People that last Thursday’s announcement of the scrapping of decentralisation to Shannon has come as “no surprise” to the people working for the organisation and that employees are “completely unfazed” by the announcement.
It was also announced that the Commissioner for Aviation Regulation is to be merged into the Irish Aviation Authority however it is not clear what effect, if any, this merger will have on the workforce in Clare.
Meanwhile, a new military aircraft from Airbus was given its first testflight at Shannon Airport last Thursday. The Airbus Military’s A400M transport landed in Shannon Airport after taking off from the Airbus manufacturing facility at Toulouse in France.
The flight spent much of its time off the Clare coast and flew as low as 10,000ft at some instances before returning at France. Airbus Military is expected to deliver the first aircraft in early 2013 with another 170 planes on order from other customers.