Airport must meet 2.5m target by 2021 – Varadkar

THE business plan for the so-called Shannon Newco sets a target of 2.5 million passengers per annum by 2021. At Monday’s launch, Minister Leo Varadkar said there’s no future for the airport if such a target can’t be met.
Asked about concerns raised in a letter sent to him by Irish Congress of Trade Unions general secretary David Begg, he said, “The main question that they raise is that they don’t believe that we can achieve just over two million passengers by 2021 and I totally refute that. Shannon peaked at 3.6 million only a few years ago and not too long ago had 2.8 million passengers. So I think it’s defeatist to think that we can’t achieve modest growth by 2021. Quite frankly, if Shannon can’t achieve that kind of growth by 2021, there is no future for the airport and I’m not prepared to accept that.”
He did say the Government are “keen to address” the concerns of the workers but that the Government and its advisers had only signed off on the relevant business plans because they were confident in them. None of the employees at Shannon will be forced to leave, he claimed. “There certainly won’t be any compulsory redundancies. That’s not something that’s being considered.”
Minister Varadkar also said workers will retain their current terms and conditions upon transferring to the Newco but said changes may be negotiated in the future.
“The only undertaking I can give is what’s in the legislation is that the staff transfer on the same terms and conditions as they have presently. Obviously, any changes have to be negotiated and it’s the case all the time across all of the semi-states and the public service that terms and conditions are being discussed. It’s certainly the case in the public service. It’s the case at the moment in Cork Airport but what happens here is that all of the staff transfer on the same terms and conditions.”
His ministerial colleague, Richard Bruton, acknowledged there is some risk involved in the move but said ignoring the situation would be more dangerous.
“Change is never without risk but sticking with the status quo would mean an outcome that no one would want. This is an ambitious and innovative approach but we’ve kicked the tyres, so to speak, on the proposal and it’s come up as a strong proposal and we’re convinced it’ll work.”
Minister Bruton said some staff with Shannon Development will be going to Enterprise Ireland and the IDA. “There will be restructuring of Shannon Development with staff going to the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and Fáílte Ireland but they are public service employees and they have options of redeployment as well. Clearly those details will be worked out as we move to full implementation.”
Minister Varadkar said the Government had opted not to privatise Shannon and the Clare airport and DAA can compete with each other, while both performing well.
“We are going to have an independent Shannon and we have examples of two State companies who compete and compete well against each other, ESB and Bord Gais are examples there. Privatisation is not being considered by the Government and that’s a decision that we’ve made.”
He also denied that Knock is being treated unfairly and said it has benefited from State supports in the past in a way that Shannon has not.
“Knock isn’t a State airport, of course. It’s a community trust/private company and what we’re doing here is not State aid, it’s a transfer of State assets from one part of the State to another or a reassigning of State assets among the residual DAA, Shannon and Shannon Development.
“The objective here is to facilitate greater competition among the airports, at least that is one of the objectives but I’m sure that Knock and other airports are well up to that competition. I do think it’s important to point out that like a lot of regional airports, Knock has received a lot of State aid in recent years – €44 million since 1993, so I do think there is a certain irony in an airport that has received that level of State aid complaining about an airport that has never received State aid.”
Regarding structures at Shannon in the coming months, Minister Varadkar said, “There will be joint appointments so people will be on the Shannon Airport board and the Shannon Development board in the interim period. The new SAA board will have full control and be fully autonomous and be able to make all the decisions that the board of any semi-State could make, save disposing any of the Shannon Heritage assets and that’s not intended in any case.
Minister Bruton claimed this would help speed up the establishment of the new entity. “By structuring it the way we are with having joint members I think we can be sure that the work will be very rapidly progressed so that when the legislative piece falls into place, we’ve done the necessary preparation work so I’d be optimistic we can push on with the legislation in the first half of next year.”
Minister Varadkar said separation will take place by year’s end at the latest and there should be a board in place by then but it could take longer to get a new CEO on board.