Coveney accuses Govt of betraying Cork

If it is true as has been claimed on RTE that Cork Airport will be
saddled with a €100M of debt associated with the construction of its
new airport terminal then we have witnessed the most blatant breach
of a political promise in Cork during the lifetime of this
Government, according to Simon Coveney TD MEP General Election Candidate for Cork South Central.

'When Aer Rianta was split up and Cork, Shannon and Dublin Airports
agreed to go it alone, the Government in an effort to get the
agreement of management at Cork Airport gave an absolute assurance in
writing, later confirmed by the Taoiseach in the Dáil and directly to
the staff in Cork Airport, that Cork Airport would not be saddled
with the debt associated with the building of its new terminal.

'The agreement was that the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) would take
on this debt and in return the DAA was compensated by taking over the
assets of the Great Southern Hotel Group and Aer Rianta
International. It's worth noting that the DAA have since sold the
Great Southern Hotel Group for €220M
more than the cost of building Cork's new terminal.

'For Cork to be saddled with this debt means that passengers will
have to pay a levy making Cork Airport less competitive than it
should have been if the Government had kept its promise to allow the
new Cork Airport to begin debt free.

'The six Government TDs in Cork City should hang their heads in shame
as they have been outflanked and out manoeuvred politically by the
DAA. My understanding is that this decision has been taken by the
Taoiseach himself to finalise the debt issue relating to Cork
Airport. He has clearly demonstrated that Cork is not a political
priority even three months out from a General Election.

'Finally to add insult to injury the DAA are insisting on taking
ownership of some of the development land attached to Cork Airport.
This claim must be strongly resisted as it is a valuable land-bank
that should be in the ownership of Cork Airport.'


Its sooooo true