This article is from page 17 of the 2012-04-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 17 JPG
THE New Quay/Bellharbour branch of Fine Gael was championing the cause of Shannon Airport at the party’s Ard Fheis at the weekend.
Speaking on the motion, “This Ard Fheis calls for the Government to develop a viable plan for the future ownership and operation of Shannon Airport over the next few months,” branch secretary Eric Keane said all executive and strategic decisions for the airport are made by the DAA.
He warned that while the airport remains under the DAA, it would be an after-thought after Dublin and Cork.
“This structure does not make com mercial sense. Shannon Airport can succeed provided it is given autonomy, which will allow for the best interests of the mid-west to be targeted and promoted. The mid-west needs an airport authority based in Shannon that can dedicate all its energy to marketing the airport and integrating with companies in the Shannon Free Zone, Limerick, Galway and beyond,” he told delegates.
“The most critical piece of infrastructure in the whole mid-west is Shannon Airport. It is essential to the mid-western economy. As we look to promote Ireland around the world to our diaspora and others, Shannon provides easy access to some of our country’s most popular tourist sites,” said Mr Keane. “If Shannon Airport is put on a sound footing, where it is able to innovate on its own, compete as it wants and recognise the true potential it has, then the whole mid-west is better off. Shannon Airport has a glorious past. It was the first airport to have a duty-free in the world; it was the first airport to get pre-clearance for passengers flying to the US. And if it can achieve the goal of having a pre-clearance for cargo going into the US, to paraphrase Michael Noonan “it will take off like a rocket”.