Ex-trade union official Peter Cassells has been appointed as a mediator between Cork and Dublin airports which Minister Dempsey obviously hopes will concentrate minds.

The truth is that even a €100 million debt lumbered on the airport will be a serious hindrance to its future potential growth. Growth at the airport in 2007 was significantly down on 2006 and a number of airlines have ceased operations. There still aren’t sufficient air bridges and the continuing row over the debt has made it impossible for Cork to plan ahead effectively.

What is often forgotten however, is that it was not the Cork Airport board that built the new terminal. It was not designed to their specification and they did not oversee the budget. The terminal’s construction was overseen by Aer Rianta which has now become the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA). Is it really fair that the Cork board should be asked to pick up the tab for a project that had nothing to do with them?

Then of course, there is the wider political picture.

The government says it is committed to balanced regional development. Actions and words are tow very different things. Is hampering the development of Cork Airport really the action of a Government committed to balanced regional development? When you consider that the same government didn’t think twice about spending €600 million on buying out National Toll Roads to remove the barriers on the M50.

It’s hard to see how removing a traffic bottleneck can  be seen as more important than developing the airport at the second biggest city in the country. But clearly that is what the Government thinks.

Comments (0) »

Show/Hide comment form

Name

Email

Title

Comment

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment