Shannon Airport should be run by a new management board which would report to Aer Rianta and the Government and look beyond "a narrow profit-making role", Mr Willie O'Dea, the Minister of State for Education, said yesterday.
He said no decision on the partial privatisation of Aer Rianta, the airport's management company, should be made until an impact study was carried out on the airport.
"A local board would give local communities a direct say in the running of the airport, and would have both the airport and the mid-west region's best interests at heart."
The Limerick East TD also said an impact study on the airport should be carried out before the Cabinet makes a decision on how much of Aer Rianta should be privatised.
He said the recent analysis of Aer Rianta by Warburg Dillon Read consultants had pointed out that proportionally more spending reductions could be made at Shannon than at the other two Aer Rianta-managed airports, Cork and Dublin.
"This and other similar recommendations could be seized on by shareholders as an excuse to cut investment in Shannon, leading to the downgrading of the airport and inevitable job losses."
Aer Rianta wants a 49 per cent flotation of the State company but the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, favours about 30 per cent being privatised. The report also noted the two regional airports had "a mixed profit performance" during a buoyant period which underlined "the difficulty they face in the long term".