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the Freedom of Information Act. The material revealed that a senior department official described as “off
the wall” a demand by the Mid West Regional Authority for a fund of €44 million to prepare the region for the ending of the stop-over.
The documentation also revealed that a €20 million tourism market- ing fund over five years was deleted from the published Economic and Tourism Plan for Shannon, despite appearing in two earlier drafts.
“We are seeking a response from the minister as to why this commit- ment was deleted. We need clarifica- tion on the issue,’ said Mr Vaughan.
“IT am very fearful that the depart- ment will renege on their commit- ment to provide the funding and it will be a similar situation to what you
had in the early 1990s where money was allocating to the Shannon Air- port Marketing Committee, but there was no follow up funding.”
A separate internal memo pointed out that the regional authority de- mand for €44 million “was always totally unrealistic and has done much to undermine the credibility of its broader case.
“If there are real marketing needs, there are likely to be far more mod- est.”
Mr Vaughan said, “I’m shocked by the attitude of the officials and it just shows their lack of understand- ing of the needs of the region. What has been uncovered shows that there
is almost a conspiracy against the re- gion.
“It must be remembered that the €44 million was a spend over a five- year period. The statements made by department officials just raise fur- ther suspicions that the dead hand of Government is conspiring against us down here in the mid-west.
‘“W hat has been revealed comes as a devastating blow and shows just how unenlightened the department is.”
The regional authority has also written to Minister Brennan seek- ing clarification about the economic plan. However, this was on foot of the minister addressing a recent re- gional authority meeting.