I move amendment No. 9a:
In page 13, between lines 26 and 27, to insert the following subsection:
"(3) The headquarters of the company shall be located at, or close to, Shannon Airport, County Clare.".
Given the events of the last week or so and the problems that have been created for Shannon Airport, for that whole region and indeed for the west, it would be appropriate to locate the headquarters of this company in Shannon. I am not sure where the 550 people employed by the company will be placed, but a number of them are already in that region, either in Shannon Airport or Ballygreen which is nearby. On Second Stage my colleague Deputy Cullen, said that there are 300 people employed in that region — I am not sure where he got that information but I assume it is reasonably accurate. If that is so, slightly more then half the future employees of the company will be in Shannon. I would like some guarantee that the main operations of the company will take place in Shannon. There is always pressure and a temptation to move operations to Dublin and there is the possibility of such pressure or temptation being made in the future as technology improves. The case will be made that it will be possible to do work in Dublin that had been previously done in Shannon. In view of the great uncertainty in the region and the deeply felt anxieties and concerns of many people, the Government should be willing to accept this amendment to ensure that the major part of this company operates out of Shannon.
The Shanwick arrangement deals with the control of traffic in the north-eastern Atlantic. Most of that operation is based in Prestwick. Since Prestwick is now effectively closed as an airport, except for occasional military flights, the Government should take up with Euro-control and the UK authorities the question of moving the main part of Shanwick control from Prestwick to Shannon. If it does not succeed in doing that a guarantee should be given to Shannon by way of acceptance of this amendment. If the numbers employed at Shannon Airport and Ballygreen were to decline further it would be particularly serious in the present context.
I remind the Minister of State that while the main radio station for aircraft movement in Ireland is stationed at Ballygreen, up to 15 or 20 years ago there was another station at Bunratty which is now closed. I would not like to see the main station moved to Dublin and closure of the Ballygreen station. The only other station of its kind that I am aware of in Ireland is in Schull which caters for longer distance communications. That is more or less an automatic station and is primarily a radar station. The number of staff employed at Schull is very small. Therefore, it is important that the operations at Shannon are retained there, and the best way to do so is to make provision in the Bill that the headquarters of this new authority be located at Shannon. It would fit in very well with general policy, with what I hope is still the policy of the Government on decentralisation. Unfortunately, decentralisation is taking place very slowly, but the policy has been successful. Clearly the appropriate place for the headquarters of this body is at Shannon because most of the work is done there anyway, and there should be a statutory guarantee of the retention of operations there.