PRESS RELEASE

21/04/2005

Officials trying to ground Cork Airport with debts - Kelleher

Cork North-Central Fianna Fáil TD Billy Kelleher has renewed his call for the Dublin Airport Authority to cover the capital costs of building a new terminal in Cork Airport, saying he was ‘concerned that officials from other airports might try to saddle Cork Airport with debt because they see it as a threat’. 

Speaking in the Dáil last night, Deputy Kelleher said Cork Airport was ‘a strategic part of the region’ which ‘should not be burdened with an excessive debt that could kill its commercial future’. 

He said it was clear that the Dublin Airport Authority would cover the costs of development in Cork Airport when former Transport Minister Séamus Brennan TD announced the break-up of Aer Rianta last year.

‘The assumption was that, at the final stages, Cork Airport would get its new terminal but that the capital costs of providing it would not be passed on to it,’ said Deputy Kelleher, who is the Government deputy chief whip.

He said Cork Airport has been a very profitable part of Aer Rianta and has been used to fund other developments in the company in the past. ‘With the shoe on the other foot, it is time Aer Rianta acknowledged that Cork Airport has not received fair investment over the years,’ he said.

‘Whatever measures are in Cork Airport’s business plans, they should be adjudicated on the original Government policy assumption that it would be free of the debt for the development of the new terminal,’ said Deputy Kelleher.

He pointed out that passenger figures in Cork Airport have now reached 2.25 million annually and projected growth puts that at 3 million. 

‘It is therefore important that we recognise that Cork Airport, first and foremost, has marketed itself very effectively,’ said Deputy Kelleher.

ENDS