As indicated in the table below, my Department has provided assistance to Ireland West Airport Knock of almost €4.7 million since 2001 in respect of capital and operational expenditure.
|
2001
|
2002
|
2003
|
2004
|
2005
|
Totals
|
|
€
|
€
|
€
|
€
|
€
|
€
|
NDP Regional Airports Measure
|
302,610
|
0
|
2,030,996
|
0
|
321,218
|
2,654,824
|
Marketing Safety & Security Grant Scheme
|
444,408
|
400,000
|
400,000
|
400,000
|
400,000
|
2,044,408
|
Totals
|
747,018
|
400,000
|
2,430,996
|
400,000
|
721,218
|
4,699,232
|
As regards 2006 and beyond, it has been necessary for my Department to draw up two new schemes in respect of capital and operational expenditure to ensure compliance with the requirements of EU guidelines on the provision of public finance to airports which were published by the EU Commission in December 2005. These new schemes have been notified to the EU Commission for the sake of legal certainty.
Meanwhile, the schemes have now been forwarded to the regional airports, inviting them to submit applications for assistance by 1 September in the case of operational expenditure and by 15 September in the case of capital projects. The capital applications will be assessed and prioritised by my Department later this year by reference to a planning and implementation framework extending to 2010. As regards applications for operational assistance, it will be necessary for my Department to agree a Memorandum of Understanding with each airport for the provision of core airport services. The amount of assistance for each individual airport will be decided annually on the basis of an examination of the projected shortfall between, on the one hand, the costs of providing those services in the year in question and on the other, total revenues likely to be available to the airport during the year.
The funding to be provided for Ireland West Airport Knock and any other regional airport in respect of 2006 and 2007 will therefore depend on the outcome of the two assessment processes mentioned above.