This article is from page 2 of the 2007-07-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
THE Government’s economic and tourism plan for Shannon Airport in- cludes a series of wide ranging pro- posals for the development of infra- structure, tourism product, tourism promotion and institutional reform.
Junior Minister, Pat “The Cope’ Gallagher, told the Dail that the plan will be considered by the Govern- ment in the coming weeks and sub- ject to approval, will be published as soon as possible.
“The report and its recommenda- tions have been examined by the relevant departments in the prepa-
ration of the proposed tourism and economic development plan for the Shannon catchment area,’ he said.
Minister Gallagher added that there was “considerable overlap between the proposals and existing initiatives that are underway or planned”.
The minister also welcomed the input to this process by the liaison eroup established by the mid-west Regional Authority which also in- cludes Clare County Council, Shan- non Development, the Shannon Air- port Authority, SIGNAL and IBEC.
In his contribution, Limerick East TD Kieran O’Donnell said: “Open Skies is effectively now in place for
Shannon. A transitional period was Supposed to operate from October 2006 to April 2008 but flights can be stacked and averaged over the pe- riod, three for one.”
He added that airlines are using Open Skies for Shannon Airport has “grave implications”.
“Three airlines are about to pull out from Shannon Airport. American Airlines, which flies year round to Chicago, will be gone from October. Air Canada, which flies year round to Toronto, will cease operations on August 10. Delta, which flies to At- lanta…will be gone from this win- oa
He added that this is a serious is- sue for the “six new hotels in Limer- ick, one of which 1s down 2,000 bed nights for 2008 because of uncer- tainty around future flights”.
He asked the minister of state to confirm that “CIE International Tours is redirecting all of its US business to Dublin because of that same uncer- tainty with disastrous consequences for the region in 2008 and 2009”.
“The Government has neglected the mid-west region to date. I want to know when the plan will be imple- mented, how much will be spent and who will implement it,” he said.