This article is from page 10 of the 2012-05-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 10 JPG
THE new Shannon Airport company will be debt-free, but the write-off of € 100m plus that it owes will be at the price of Aer Rianta International (ARI) being lost to Shannon forever.
This quid pro-quo arrangement has been heralded by Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar, despite a demand from interest groups in the mid west region that Shannon be given a slice of ARI’s profits.
“ARI originated in Shannon,” admitted Minister Varadkar, “but what it will do is remain part of the DAA group which is going to be re-named. It started in Shannon, but moved beyond Shannon a long time ago.
“It has been contributing to the DAA group, but the justification we have to take the debt off Shannon is the fact that Shannon did contribute to the development of ARI,” he added.
The case for Shannon ownership of ARI, which is considered the jewel in the crown of the DAA, was made vociferously to Minister Varadkar as recently as last March by former ARI chief, Michael Hanrahan.
“Aer Rianta International started in May 1988 – we had an initial capital of € 1.2m and that came from the surpluses of Shannon through the ‘80s. Minister Varadkar indicated that this money came from Dublin – it came from Shannon,” he said.
“The concept that Shannon owes € 100m is to me an absolute scandal,” he blasted.
“Aer Rianta International invested in Birmingham Airport and that investment was £30m sterling. That came from the surpluses of Aer Rianta International. The DAA disposed of the investment Birmingham and made a profit of € 270m,” he added.
“ARI is a subsidiary of the DAA group and belongs to the state. It doesn’t belong to Shannon and what we are giving Shannon is independence,” Minister Varadkar has countered this week.
“We are giving Shannon the ability to set its own charges, we are giving it a situation where it is going to start off debt free and hopefully some cash in the bank and maybe cash incentives and other tools to make it a huge success.
“It’s because Shannon contributed so much to Aer Rianta International, in recognition of that it’s not going to have to carry any debt from the DAA.
“The exact mechanism about how that’s going to work will be part of the steering committee’s remit.
“What I want is the new company to have cash in the bank – cash to carry out investments that are needed and also to absorb any losses that might occur in the first year or two,” Minister Varadkar added.