Shannon is not just an airport. The independent overseas consultant, Alastair Tucker, concluded in his 1997 study that 23,000 direct jobs, mainly in industry, and 13,000 indirect jobs depend on Shannon Airport. Recent updates put that figure at over 40,000 jobs. European and international studies consistently highlight the Shannon region as a prime example of regional development. They all conclude that the key driver of this regional development and economic success is the airport and in particular its high level of services from the United States. The EU has consistently supported regions and has put considerable financial resources into delivering on its commitment to peripheral areas. I am confident that the Commission will acknowledge and accommodate the special case of the west of Ireland.
The onus is on the Minister and the Government to make a powerful case and not to undermine it in advance by negotiating a weaker position with the US authorities. Since 1994 – this is not generally well known – airlines have had the option of operating directly on US routes to and from either Dublin or Shannon as long as half the transatlantic flights serve Shannon. Aer Lingus, through a combination of inept management, uneven marketing, and anti-rural bias has failed to capitalise on this opportunity. If the will was there very few flights would need to land at both airports as they would be filled from both. Aer Lingus management and some of its American counterparts want to serve only one Irish destination and they have perversely discommoded business and private customers in Dublin and the west by routing flights through both airports to further that aim. People taking flights in Dublin are frequently put through Shannon. Likewise, people travelling from Shannon are very frequently being backtracked through Dublin in both directions. Prior to 1994 Aer Lingus promised that direct flights from Dublin would reduce the numbers going over London. The direct opposite has happened, which will not come as any surprise to anyone who has dealt with the airline.
The Government will have to decide if, as shareholder, it is solely concerned with the value of an asset to be shed at the highest price. It will have to decide whether the terms regional, or employment opportunities in the regions, mean anything or whether they should be sacrificed for the paltry return on the privatisation of Aer Lingus. In response to a parliamentary question yesterday the carrot of transatlantic services was held out to other airports besides Dublin and Shannon. I am surprised that the senior official who prepared the response was not aware that Aer Lingus objected strongly to the provision of facilities for wide-bodied aircraft in the new Cork Airport facility.
More than 40% of traffic through Shannon in 2002 comprised transatlantic flights. Shannon's daily direct flights are the lifeblood of industries up and down the west coast. They ensure that spare parts and raw materials are readily available and that deliveries of air freight reach customers on time. A diminution of services will result in job losses. Last week the promoters of the western technology corridor project, comprising key west of Ireland industrialists, reacted with horror to the news of open skies without a well-researched and adequately funded alternative strategy. Dr. Ed Walsh put the start-up cost of his Atlantic technopolis, the Cork-Limerick-Galway axis as a counterweight to Dublin, at €1 billion. His proposals put flesh on the bones of the national spatial strategy. This debate on air access policy is the first test and so far the Government seems destined for a no-grade result on the issue. More than 80% of air access is via Dublin and 90% of surface access is through east coast ports. The recent interim report of a tourism policy review group called for that share to be increased. When I asked the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism to publish the background and supporting documentation he could not. There is none of course, except that conjured up by Aer Lingus executives and their business allies salivating at the prospect of a windfall, similar to that which followed the privatisation of Telecom, in the privatisation stakes of our national airline.
Changes will occur in aviation policy. I want those changes to be planned and managed to the benefit of the entire country. Dublin needs to have its growth managed just as much as the west needs a share of national growth in industrial and economic advances. Some regional support can be provided by regulation. Other supports cost money. The most dramatic and beneficial results have been seen in the case of Shannon and its hinterland. If the Government had many millions of euro at its disposal the same result could be achieved by direct investment in infrastructure and services. There is, however, a very considerable saving to the national exchequer by pursuing the former route of some regulation with some investment, and the EU will go along with the Government case if it is strongly made.
The White Paper on Transport of 2002, prepared by the committee of the regions, concluded that regional airports should not be disadvantaged by proposals for any joint transatlantic aviation agreement. I strongly agree with that sentiment. The Government has a wonderful opportunity to deliver on regional development and a spatial strategy while ensuring that the conditions for growth in air traffic and tourism are also availed of.
