Large turnout expected for Varadkar address

THERE will be huge interest in the address given by Transport Minister Leo Varadkar at Shannon Chamber’s spring lunch, on Friday, March 30, given that Mr Varadkar has said he will provide details of his plan for Shannon’s future by Easter, which is the following weekend.

THERE will be huge interest in the address given by Transport Minister Leo Varadkar at Shannon Chamber’s spring lunch, on Friday, March 30, given that Mr Varadkar has said he will provide details of his plan for Shannon’s future by Easter, which is the following weekend.
Chamber president Damian Gleeson said he expects there will be a very big turnout. “We hope to have upwards of 150 people at the Oakwood because it’s getting very close to when a decision has to be made on the structure of Shannon and there is a huge level of interest in it.”
Mr Gleeson said the chamber favours the concession identified in the Booz Report, under which local public bodies would take ownership of the airport before appointing a private concessionaire to run it.
“We would be satisfied with the appointment of a concessionaire to operate it for profit and the benefit of Shannon.”
He said if the minister goes down that route, people with strong business backgrounds should be appointed to the airport’s board of directors. “As a chamber of commerce, we would advocate that individuals with strong business acumen and airport experience be appointed,” he said.
The Transport Minister has been to the Mid-West on several occasions since joining the Cabinet and he addressed a Limerick Chamber event earlier this year, in which he promised to bring certainty to Shannon.
“In 2008, a decision was made yet again to postpone a decision and that’s why I find myself in the place I do find myself. It is my absolute intention to give certainty in 2012 and that no matter what happens, there will be no more temporary arrangements and no more kicking the can down the road.
“Whatever solution we decide to go for in relation to Shannon will be decided this year and give certainty for the foreseeable future,” he said at the time.
On that occasion he paid tribute to the innovation shown in Shannon’s history but claimed it is now absent.
“I think since those early days, Shannon has probably drifted a little. There was, of course, the issue of the stopover, which was there for some time. I think, in many ways, around those times Shannon started to change the way it saw things and started to ask what the Government should do; the Government must make planes land here, must bring people to our airport.
“I think that was a departure from the entrepreneurial spirit that was there beforehand, which was about bringing people to Shannon. I think in recent years as well, there has been a dependency on the DAA group, a dependency that I don’t think has been very healthy for the airport or the region,” he stated.