A Fianna Fáil TD has called on his party to resolve the Cork Airport debt issue, insisting that management should not have to carry the burden of the €100 million debt.
After the break-up of Aer Rianta in 2004, the then minister for transport, Séamus Brennan, said that Cork Airport would be transferred to its new independent status debt-free and that all assets and contractual arrangements would be transferred to the Dublin Airport Authority.
Since then the Government has changed its position. It now wants Cork Airport to accept the €100 million debt before autonomy is granted. But yesterday deputy government chief whip Billy Kelleher claimed that the new Cork terminal building must be debt-free, as promised.
"There is a very strong feeling in Cork with regard to this issue and the fact that Cork Airport was underfunded and lacked investment for many years while assisting development at Shannon and Dublin," Mr Kelleher said. "It is now time for that situation to be rectified and for the Cork terminal building to be funded by the Dublin Airport Authority, as originally envisaged."
The Cork North-Central TD said that the uncertainty surrounding the issue should be resolved as a matter of urgency. Cork Airport was the "economic heartbeat of the Munster region" and no burden should be placed on it which would jeopardise it commercially.
Cork Airport has a debt of €220 million on the DAA's books, with €90 million incurred directly on the new terminal, which opened last July, €90 million on other improvements and €40 million a long-standing debt.
Critics say that asking Cork Airport to pay €100 million would cripple its ability to attract new routes. Opposition TDs and business leaders have strongly criticised the Government on the matter.