Powers of Shannon board are queried

The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, has been consulting widely over whether the proposed new board for Shannon Airport should be totally autonomous or retain some links with Aer Rianta.

He was committed to the new board being "substantially autonomous", he told the Dáil, in reply to a question from Mr Pat Breen (Fine Gael, Clare) who asked Mr Brennan whether he would take on board the views of the various local groups he had met recently.

These included members of Clare and Limerick county councils as well as travel agents, trade unions and the Mid-west Regional Authority.

Mr Breen also asked what type of budgeting and marketing strategies were envisaged given "the airport's geographical disadvantage".

Ryanair had recently offered to open up two new routes out of Shannon, but the airport's local management had to turn down both proposals, Mr Breen added.

Were those routes lost because the local board of the airport had to seek permission from Aer Rianta, he inquired.

The Minister said his Department was still consulting about the degree of autonomy warranted. The new board would have but one objective - to make Shannon Airport grow: "It is currently operating at probably half its potential capacity."

The Minister believed it could "make a huge leap forward", however, and see its business grow dramatically.

Mr Brennan said he knew an offer had been made, then rejected and subsequently hauled back again, although he was not clear about the role of Dublin Airport in that offer.

As for marketing budgets, he assumed Aer Rianta's was derived from an annual agreement between Shannon and Dublin. Shannon Development also had a role to play.

The Minister said he understood that talks were now taking place concerning the Ryanair offer and that the "lost offer" might be retrieved.

"Shannon Airport management is now discussing that offer with Ryanair to see if they can make it happen," he said.