Time to take a stand

EDITORIAL

OVER the years Shannon Airport has found itself in the eye of several political storms. Another is now brewing.

Back in 1993 when the then government of the day issued soundbites that it proposed to extinguish Shannon’s special stopover status, a political furore erupted.
Clare’s two Fianna Fáil deputies, Síle de Valera and Tony Killeen, rebelled against their government colleagues and moves to terminate Shannon’s long-standing bilateral agreement. They resigned the party whip in protest.
Both considered the government’s proposal was more favourable to Dublin Airport and it didn’t sit particularly well with Mr Killeen. As a founder member of the Shannon Status Committee, a lobby group that campaigned to protect the airport’s role as the country’s sole transatlantic gateway, how could he countenance or stand behind such a move? What his party was proposing flew in the face of what he had campaigned for.
Cynics and people of different political persuasions at the time labelled their decision to resign from the parliamentary party as political posturing. Deputies de Valera and Killeen were seen to be taking a stand without fear of incurring serious censorship from the party. They were seen to be playing the political game of point-scoring.
That may be a harsh analysis but the quickness in which they subsequently returned to the party fold merely fuelled that assertion.
Eventually, though, they were powerless when less than a decade ago, the then Transport Minister Martin Cullen put pen to paper with the US secretary of Transport, Norman Mineta, to phase out the Shannon stopover by April 2008.
The stopover was subsumed under an open skies agreement between the EU and the US, liberalising air travel arrangements between Ireland and the US.
It was suggested at the time that the Irish economy would grow by 10% within three years of the implementation of the liberal open-air agreement and that an open skies policy could also mean a 10% increase in passenger numbers to Ireland. Well, we all know what happened. Such talk was pie in the sky.
Last week, Dublin Airport Authority released its 2011 results. The statistics were damning as regards Shannon Airport. Since 2007, the year the stopover ended, transatlantic passenger numbers were down by as much as 50%, while passengers to and from continental Europe had plummeted by 75%. Frightening stuff.
Emotions also ran high when Aer Lingus ended Shannon’s Heathrow slots in August 2007.
Making the announcement over a bank holiday weekend was a deliberate tactic to minimise the effects of such a damaging decision for Shannon. However, the aftershock was surreal. It merely served to heighten people’s anger and precipitated a public outcry. People took to the streets in protest.
Now the Government wants to strip Shannon of the ultra-lucrative financial operation Aer Rianta International under the terms of the airport’s separation from the controlling clutches of the DAA. The deal is all but signed, sealed and delivered and yet, apart from the protestations of former executives, people responsible for setting up the operation in the first instance, Clare’s political representatives seem to be taking the deal lying down.
Since ARI came under the DAA’s control in 2004 on the introduction of the State Airport Act, it has posted profits of around €164 million. That’s according to the eight DAA annual reports published since.
Interestingly, that doesn’t include the €315m raised through the sale of ARI’s shareholding in Birmingham Airport five years ago. Over the past two years, the company, founded in Shannon by Shannon-based executives, recorded profits of over €50m, half of the airport’s overall debt.
Transport Minister Leo Varadkar has promised a €100m handshake for Shannon once it exits the DAA structure. That would be a pittance compared to the potential ARI has for making serious money.
Furthermore, if Shannon isn’t armed with a proper marketing budget when it eventually becomes independent, it will literally be going around in circles, making no inroads.
Minister Varadkar defended his decision by adding, “The Government’s decision in principle to separate Shannon Airport from the DAA was taken precisely to secure a viable future for the airport, following years of neglect by the previous government. We have consulted widely on the matter and will now put in place a mechanism to ensure Shannon Airport is placed on a secure footing as part of a vibrant new entity, with the added bonus of an extensive land bank and a debt-free status.”
However, he then lobbed in a hand grenade when admitting, “ARI is probably worth less to Shannon than the removal of the debt”. Talk about fanning the flames.
Former head of finance at Shannon, Michael Hanrahan is infuriated at developments regarding ARI. He pulled no punches this week when, in an exclusive interview with The Clare Champion, he openly berated Clare’s public representatives in Dáil Éireann. He admitted to being stunned at the lack of any political or business response to the impending loss of ARI.
“I’m amazed at how docile a lot of Clare people are, that they haven’t kicked up hell over this. It amazes me. A lot of these people who went on television after the announcement saying it was great for Shannon haven’t a clue what they are talking about.
“Shannon losing ARI is a huge mistake. It’s too high a price to pay for this €100m that Shannon has on its books by way of a debt. It’s wrong; you can see the surpluses that ARI are making. Leaving Shannon debt free isn’t going to compensate for the loss of ARI,” he declared.
It’s all about self-preservation. No doubt leaving ARI with Shannon would be their get-out card. The time for talking is running out but there’s still time for Clare’s Oireachtas members to make a stand for Shannon. Toeing the party line isn’t the way to do it.