Vital decisions on the future of Shannon Airport, including its ownership and management, were promised within months by the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, yesterday.
The Government has not yet decided what degree of autonomy the airport should have in the future, he said during a visit, but "there is a need for change, and I am here today to continue the dialogue which has already started in relation to Shannon".
However, an Aer Rianta worker director said the Minister's visit to take soundings appeared to be a ploy to divert attention away from the huge job losses which threaten the whole region.
Mr Pat Fitzgerald, who is also chairman of the Shannon Airport SIPTU branch, accused Mr Brennan of being "intent on breaking up Aer Rianta - one of the most successful and profitable semi-State companies - at a time when the attention of the Government should be on protecting hundreds of jobs which are being lost and the many hundreds of others which are under threat".
He called on the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, to set up a task force to make sure that Shannon Development took "all the measures necessary" to halt the job losses.
Mr Brennan, speaking at a meeting of business, aviation and industrial interests in the region, said the Government had to determine whether the future of Shannon as a total State company or as integrated Aer Rianta group was the better, "and there are many variations of that".
The revision process was ongoing, and he hoped to bring it to a close within a matter of months. The focus, he said, should be on bringing new business to Shannon, whether it was from Dublin or London.
With the new Department of Transport there was an opportunity to stand back and "ask ourselves what is the best road to go.
"I want to complete this process very quickly so that we do not have uncertainty in the area surrouning the future of Shannon airport," Mr Brennan said.
There was only one central interest, and that was what was best for Shannon in the future. That was for it to move forward and grab new business to compete with airports within and outside the State.
Mr Fitzgerald said, however, that Aer Rianta had invested hundreds of millions of euro in Shannon Airport over many years, and this level of investment had played a major role in stimulating and attracting huge investment in the mid-west region.
"The investment by Irish and foreign companies has resulted in the creation of thousands of jobs. But these jobs are under threat because of the global economic downturn and the problems in the technology sector," he said.
Mr Patrick Purcell, president of the Shannon District Chamber of Commerce, which organised the meeting addressed by Mr Brennan,said advance provision of infrastructure was essential if Shannon was to achieve its potential. This included road and bridge or tunnel access through the main bottlenecks of Limerick and Ennis and better road facilities to Galway.
