Emmet Stagg
Question:3 Mr. Stagg asked the Minister for Public Enterprise her views on whether Baldonnel Aerodrome should be developed as a second airport for Dublin city; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16738/99]
Priority Questions. - Baldonnel (Dublin) Aerodrome.
The future development of the military aerodrome at Baldonnel is primarily a matter for my colleague, the Minister for Defence, in the first instance. Both the Minister for Defence and I have received several proposals on limited development of civil aviation at Baldonnel. I met people in our offices, as did the Minister for Defence who put forward some ideas.
Any use of Baldonnel for civil aviation purposes is a matter which falls to be considered by me, in consultation with the Minister for Defence, in the context of overall airports policy. In that regard, advisers have been appointed jointly by the Minister for Finance and myself to assist in the examination of Aer Rianta's report on its future strategic direction. It is expected that the advisers will complete their work in the near future. We will then report to Government on that, inter alia, with reference to specific proposals. I do not know what the advisers will come up with and, therefore, it would be pointless to speculate.
Who made the proposals to the Minister and the Minister for Defence in her office? Is she aware that the Secretary General of the Department of Defence recently indicated to a Dáil committee that the Department had no principled objection to developing Baldonnel as a commercial civilian airport? Will the Minister agree that, arising from the housing development in the vicinity of Baldonnel Aerodrome, it will be difficult to find a flight path that will not fly over housing development, which would have serious implications for the people who live in them?
I do not know who met the Minister for Defence but I read in the paper that he met people.
Does the Minister believe everything she reads in the papers?
These are priority questions and the time is limited.
Most times. I met Mr. Tony Ryan in my office and he put forward a proposal. My officials were with me; that seems to be obligatory now. Mr. Ryan left a paper with us. I met another man whose name I was trying to remember as the Deputy spoke. I believe his name is Patrick McBatt or McButt – I will furnish the Deputy with his name – and he has land adjoining Baldonnel Aerodrome. Residents have written to me – I do not know if they are from the area mentioned by the Deputy – arising out of articles they read in newspapers, about which they expressed their disquiet.
I am glad it is Tony Ryan the Minister met about this proposal. Is she aware that Mr. Ryan went to all the ICA committees, he went to the Irish Countrywomen's Association, to Tidy Towns meetings and to Kildare residents' meetings seeking support for this kind of cracked proposal? I am sure the Minister would agree it is similar to many other cracked proposals he has put forward, all of which were failures until someone else took them over. Is the Minister aware that Ryanair, of which Mr. Ryan was once a substantial board member, though no longer, has no interest in developing a second airport in Dublin? It wants to operate from Dublin Airport as it is.
To take Deputy Stagg's last point, I am aware of Ryanair's proposal for a particular pier at Dublin Airport. From that, one can deduce that it is no longer interested, if it ever was, in Mr. Ryan's proposals. God bless his energy if he met all those bodies to put forward his ideas.