Mayor critical of Knock ‘favouritism’

USING and sometimes abusing political office to look after one’s own constituency has long been an unfortunate reality of governance in Ireland and Shannon is currently suffering because of parish-pump politics, Clare’s first citizen has claimed.

Mayor Pat Hayes this week said the securing of four new Ryanair routes and millions of euro worth of capital investment for Knock Airport shows the Mayo airport is being put before Shannon.
“We could only expect that the Taoiseach and his junior minister (Mayo-based Tourism Minister of State Michael Ring) would favour their local airport but the degree of that favouritism of late has been worrying from a Shannon context. The Government clearly has its eye on propping up Knock and while Shannon’s status is being reviewed at the moment, commentary around the process from Government has not been that positive. So we have a quite contrasting approach to the two airports,” the Feakle man claimed.
“All the indications are that the Taoiseach pulled out all the stops to ensure the new Ryanair routes at Knock were delivered. Minister Michael Ring quickly followed that up last week by announcing a €4 million capital investment in infrastructure at Knock, which is very curious considering Government said earlier this year that it only had half of this amount for capital projects for six regional airports this year, let alone just Knock. Clearly, more money has been found for the County Mayo airport.
“In contrast to the support for Knock, we have had some very pessimistic comments from Transport Minister Leo Varadkar in recent weeks about Shannon. For one, his comment that there is a risk that Shannon will be downgraded to the country’s fourth largest airport after Knock just doesn’t add up, as Shannon had 1.8 million passengers last year and Knock had just 580,000.”
Speaking at a tourism conference recently, Mr Varadkar openly spoke about Knock overtaking Shannon, while just a few weeks ago he mused publicly about the airport’s future, saying that unless there are changes it “will not be important any more because there will be so few people going through it”.
Clare TD Pat Breen said he didn’t believe Ryanair had come to Knock Airport because of the Kenny factor. “At the end of the day, Michael O’Leary will go where the price is right and he has said that his decision to open new routes at Knock was not influenced by the presence of the Taoiseach and the Minister for Tourism Michael Ring in the constituency and he will leave Knock as quick again when it suits him.”
He said he doesn’t feel bald comparisons between Shannon and Knock should be made. “Comparing Shannon and Knock airports is a distraction, which serves neither airport well. The real problem for airports along the West of Ireland is the fact that over the past number of years there has been a dramatic shift in airline traffic into Dublin Airport, which has impacted negatively on tourism and tourism-related activities right across the western seaboard.
“I am tired of listening to people knocking Shannon Airport. It has many advantages compared to Knock Airport. It operates 24/7, 365 days per year, has the longest runway in Ireland (3,199 metres) and, unlike Knock, is rarely subject to fog,” he concluded.