I thank Deputies Coveney and Murphy for their contributions and welcome the opportunity to respond on behalf of the Minister for Transport, Deputy Brennan. Deputy Coveney and the House should recognise that when we need leadership, there is no better man than Deputy Brennan to show it. He will do so, in particular, with regard to Cork Airport. I agree this is a serious issue. As someone who frequents Cork Airport when I visit the region, I accept that many of the Deputies comments are warranted.
The programme for Government provides that, as part of the process of continuing to transform Aer Rianta, the Government will ensure Shannon and Cork airports have greater autonomy and independence. A debate has now been stimulated by the Minister within the Shannon and Cork regions and at national level on the best ownership structure for these two airports going forward. The Minister visited both Shannon and Cork recently to further stimulate this debate and seek out the views of local interests.
As the Deputies will be aware, the Minister has already made it clear that the issue of greater autonomy for Shannon and Cork airports is being considered solely in the context of continued State ownership of the airports. There is a genuine sense of goodwill towards the airports in the two regions on the part of local tourism and business interests. The Minister has already received numerous ideas and suggestions from local interests on the best ownership structure for Cork and Shannon airports which range from maintaining the current Aer Rianta structure to completely new, separate State companies to own and operate the two airports. The Minister will carefully consider the views of all interested parties before framing proposals to bring to Government and it is not appropriate at this point to speculate on what those proposals will be.
Aer Rianta funds developments at Cork and Shannon from its own resources and borrowings without recourse to the Exchequer. If the ownership structure of these airports were to be revised in a fundamental way, the issue of the level and sources of funding for the airports going forward would have to be carefully assessed. Based on submissions which have been received to date, there is clearly a wide range of views on the best way forward for Cork and Shannon airports. Some interests are satisfied with the status quo ownership arrangement but would welcome a mechan ism to provide for a greater contribution by local interests in decision making at the airports. The Minister will listen to all parties who have views to offer on these issues and neither he nor the Government has any ideological preconceptions with regard to the matter. There is no point in changing the current ownership arrangements unless it can be shown that there are clear, positive benefits for Cork and Shannon and their surrounding areas. Whatever the outcome of his current examination of options for greater autonomy for Cork Airport, the Minister has already made it clear that Aer Rianta's development plans will proceed.
There is a general consensus that Cork Airport needs significant investment as a result of the growth in traffic through the airport in recent years and Aer Rianta is well advanced with its plans for a major new capital investment programme in infrastructure and facilities. The main feature of this programme, estimated to cost €130 million, will bring the capacity of the airport up to 2.5 million passengers and will facilitate further expansion thereafter to handle growth up to 5 million passengers per annum in the medium to long-term.
Cork Airport has seen a dramatic growth in passenger traffic, which has risen by 50% since 1996 and stood at a rate of 1.8 million passengers last year. This success in passenger growth, which has continued this year with results for the first ten months showing an increase of over 5% on the same period last year, has created pressures on the airport's infrastructure and Aer Rianta's major development plan will address this.
The Minister wants to assure Deputies that the ownership structure decided upon for Cork Airport will be in the best interests of the airport and will facilitate continued growth. It will also serve the best interests of airlines and passengers. The implementation of the current development plan will ensure that the airport has the necessary infrastructural facilities to meet the growing traffic demands for air travel in the Cork region. Cork Airport has and will continue to contribute much to the prosperity of the surrounding regions.
