This article is from page 3 of the 2006-02-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
CONCERN was growing yesterday that the Shannon Airport Authority (SAA) might have to carry a sizeable proportion of the cost of its estimated €70 million debt, in order for the Authority to gain control of the airport’s finances.
Two years ago when the Government formally announced the establishment of the Shannon Airport Authority and a break-up of Aer Rianta, the then Minister for Transport, Seamus Brennan announced that Shannon would be debt-free in the new set-up.
But, in response to a Dáil question from Pat Breen TD (FG) as to whether he would be honoring the commitment of his predecessor, Seamus Brennan on the debt issue, Transport Minister, Martin Cullen, would not give any guarantees.
Deputy Breen told The Clare People that the issue required further clarity.
Further doubt was cast in the Seanad when Clare Junior Minister, Tony Killeen spoke on the matter.
“At an early stage in the airport restructuring process, it was indicated that the intention was that both the independent Cork and Shannon airports would commence on a debt-free basis.
“However, that was always going to be subject to determining the optimum mechanisms for allocating airport assets among the three airports in compliance with the capital maintenance rules and other provisions of the Companies Acts.
“There are technical company law and accounting requirements that would need to be satisfied in any transfer of assets from the Dublin Airport Authority to the Shannon Airport Authority and the Cork Airport Authority.
“For company law and accounting purposes, such transfers of assets would be regarded as distributions made by the Dublin Airport Authority to its shareholder, the Minister for Finance.
“Consequently, the Dublin Airport Authority will be able to make the transfers only when it has available sufficient distributable reserves to match the value of the assets being transferred.
“The level of debt associated with the assets of Shannon and Cork airports and the level of distributable reserves required to transfer those assets to the two authorities will emerge from the work currently under way on the development of business plans by the three airport authorities.
“These data will feed into the decision on determining the optimum mechanisms for allocating airport assets among the three airports.