I propose to take Questions Nos. 533, 549, 556 and 557 together.
Following on from the Booz Report on the future ownership and operation of Cork and Shannon Airports, the Government has decided in principle to separate Shannon Airport from the Dublin Airport Authority and to merge it with a restructured Shannon Development to form a new entity in public ownership. The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and I will now establish a Steering Group that will bring forward proposals for the implementation of the decision.
Questions in relation to the future of the Airport, its funding and its debt along with airport competition issues are among the matters to be considered by the Steering Group in the first instance.
I should make it clear, however, that it is envisaged that the new merged entity, while remaining in public ownership, would have a commercial mandate with no recourse to Exchequer funding.