“Appearance of dysfunction at Shannon”

THE managing director of Shannon Airport Andrew Murphy is leaving his position.

Last Friday, Shannon Group released a statement stating that he had informed the company that he would be taking up another position, also in the aviation sector.

Mr Murphy joined Shannon Group in March 2014 as chief commercial officer and took up the role of managing director of Shannon Airport in February 2017.

Mary Considine, CEO, Shannon Group said, “Andrew has played an instrumental role at Shannon Group since the early days of its establishment and we are very appreciative of his dedication and hard work throughout his career with us. I would like to wish him every success and happiness in his new career.”

Mr Murphy’s departure comes shortly after the resignation of Niall O’Callaghan, who was managing director of Shannon
Heritage.

Deputy Michael McNamara said there is “increasingly an appearance of dysfunction” at Shannon.

The two departures are significant, he feels. “One of them is essentially the manager of the airport, the other is essentially the manager of Shannon Heritage and that’s two out of the three main components of Shannon Group.”

He said he has held concerns about Shannon for some time, which are increasing. “There are problems there that have obviously been made a lot worse by Covid but I think it would be wrong to suggest that everything was going swimmingly until Covid came along. I accept it has made the situation a lot worse but there seem to have been underlying problems that Covid has exacerbated, rather than anything else.”

Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil Deputy Cathal Crowe said that he has brought a range of concerns of Shannon Group employees to
its CEO, Mary Considine. “I engaged with airport and Shannon Heritage staff, who I’ve been in close contact with for a number of weeks now and this led me to compile a list of 29 critical questions based on their concerns, which I’ve now emailed to Mary Considine for response.”

He said some clarity is needed on what is required for Shannon Heritage sites to stay open later in the year. “Shannon Group must make it crystal clear to politicians exactly what they require to keep Shannon Heritage sites open for the remainder of the year. These sites are of huge strategic importance in terms of luring in tourists to the Mid-West and to Clare and I can think of no credible commercial reason whatsoever as to why they would remain closed over the autumn and winter.”

Owen Ryan