Matt Shanahan questions €126m aviation package, demands oversight
Matt Shanahan questioned the €126 million aviation package announced in grant assistance, arguing there is insufficient detail and Oireachtas oversight. He contrasted the package with the withdrawal of a €375,000-a-year stopgap payment to Walford Regional Airport and pressed for economic analyses, business cases and procurement transparency.
Main concerns
Shanahan warned of a "stunning absence on any detail" about the scale of state aid in the aviation package and said the Oireachtas cannot properly discharge budgetary oversight without basic information on the expenditure. He raised concerns about "out of control expenditure and practices" at Dublin and Cork airports and suggested the funding may fall outside the spirit of Covid exceptions to EU state aid.
Comparison with regional funding
He compared the €126 million package with the cancelled stopgap funding to Walford Regional Airport of €375,000 per year, highlighting an apparent disparity in support between major airports and regional facilities.
Transparency requests
Shanahan asked explicitly for the missing materials he said should accompany such spending - economic analysis, business cases, the procurement process, lobbying disclosures, oversight records and public debate - and questioned where those documents were.
Purpose and tourism impact
He acknowledged the stated aim of the package is to restore capacity to airports and airlines so people can travel again and support the hospitality and tourism sectors. He noted deputies from all sides of the house had urged more action, that the measure was announced in the budget to help restore capacity, and cited local examples such as the Greenway in Dungarvan and wider benefits for Waterford and the South East.
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My question relates to the Euro package aviation supports announced of €126 million in total in grant assistance and I'd compare that to the withdrawal of stopgap funding to Walford Regional Airport of €375,000 per year. There is a stunning absence on any detail on this massive state aid to the sector and I brought this up before, how is the Oireachtas expected to discharge our duty of budgetary oversight when we do not have the scantest information on this expenditure? We are always being told at the airport sector does not get free state aid and therefore are beyond the scrutiny of these houses but it's particularly important when one looks at the out of control expenditure and practices presently going on in Cork and Dublin airports it does look like this money falls out of the spirit of the Covid exceptions to EU state aid. Where is the economic analysis, the business cases, the procurement process, the lobbying disclosures, the oversight, the public debate over what looks like a massive bump to Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports? It's about getting people facilitating travel and getting our capacity back up. The number of people travelling into Ireland is a fraction of what has travelled in in previous times before the pandemic and the airports and the airlines have sought a meaningful aviation package. And deputies from all sides of the house have asked us to do more in respect of aviation, in fact we have been criticised for not doing enough and this package is a package that we have announced in the budget to support restoring capacity to airports and to airlines and to make sure we can get people in way so that they can help the hospitality sector in terms of tourism sector. So you have more tourists using the greenway in Dungarvan for example or other tourist sites in Waterford or across the South East. But if we don't get people in and if we don't have the capacity to get people in they won't be spending money across the length and breadth of the country.
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