*Senator Roisin Garvey. Photograph: John Mangan
An emergency meeting with the Transport Minister on the future of Shannon Airport has been requested by Clare’s Oireachtas members.
Senator Roisin Garvey (GP) issued the request to discuss the current state of affairs at Shannon Airport with Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan (GP) after it emerged this week that Aer Lingus were contemplating moving their transatlantic routes from Shannon to UK airports instead.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Senator Garvey said “a solutions based meeting” with the Minister and the county’s members of the Government parties. She stressed the importance of Shannon Airport to the Mid-West and the need to intervene as soon as possible.
“Pre COVID there was problems at Shannon Airport, let’s not use this as an excuse,” she stated. The Inagh woman insisted Minister Ryan understood the problems at Shannon.
Recent meetings regarding the future of Shannon Airport “have gone around in circles,” Senator Garvey believed. As examples, she said Tds were listing the problems while Shannon Group stated they were trying their best.
Highlighting that Dublin was “bursting at the seams”, Roisin stressed the need for a commuter bus linking Shannon to Galway to get more people flying from Shannon as opposed to travelling all the way via bus from Galway to the capital.
At the time of going to print on Wednesday, no confirmation of a meeting had been set. Speaking in the Seanad at the end of July, Senator Garvey said Minister Ryan was to visit Shannon Airport “in the coming weeks”.
