*Joe Carey (FG). Photograph: Chris Copley
CLARE TD, Joe Carey (FG) has been appointed as the new Chairperson of the Oireachtas Committee on Transport and Communications.
Four-term TD Carey had been tipped for a Junior Ministry in December as part of a Government reshuffle but five months later has received some form of recognition with the new role.
He succeeds Limerick TD, Kieran O’Donnell (FG) who was appointed as a Junior Minister in the Department of Housing as part of the reshuffle.
Deputy Carey’s new gig brings it with an additional payment of an approximate €10,000 per annum on top of a TD’s basic salary which falls in the region of €105,000.
Clarecastle native Carey will assume the new roles when he returns to Leinster House. He is currently on sick leave and expected to be out of action for the remainder of the month, at least.
Fine Gael’s reshuffle of their backbench also sees Joe become their spokesperson on Transport, fellow Clare TD Cathal Crowe (FF) holds the Aviation and Transport spokesperson title for Fianna Fáil.
Carey is one of seventeen TDs appointed to the Fine Gael front bench and one of two appointed to chair Oireachtas committees, the other post being filled by former Minister of State Colm Brophy (FG) who will take charge of the Committee on European Affairs.
Speaking to The Clare Echo following Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s (FG) decision to snub him for a Junior Ministry, Carey expressed confidence of an Oireachtas Chairmanship post. “I’m a member of the Transport Committee, maybe there is a possibility that I could be appointed Chairperson there, maybe I won’t but that is maybe an opportunity in the next few weeks I might get positive news on that”.
“I think everyone in politics wants to progress, I’ve been elected to the Dáil on four separate occasions, I certainly want to be a Minister or Minister of State,” he added.
Currently Chairman of the Oireachtas Group on Shannon Airport, Carey has underpinned Shannon Airport as one of the key issues he is fighting for as a TD, particularly its development as a European transport hub and the introduction of a national aviation policy. “Shannon Airport is one of the bigger issues for me, as a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, I proposed that we do a piece of work around aviation policy and the need to amend national aviation policy to give a better slice of the cake to Shannon”.
“If we could maximise the asset that Shannon is and give it a better opportunity, I think we can grow and grow. Shannon was included in the Regional Airports Programme for the first time last year, we got €11m which we used really well, we put in a new state of the art security screening system in Shannon, people can get through Shannon quicker than any other airport in Ireland and nearly across Europe, you’ve two security checks in Dublin if you want to fly to America and there’s only one in Shannon, we’ve the preclearance facility too, Shannon Airport management have used the money very well, it also helped with operational monies for security and other issues, that money helps free up money to market and route develop. The current aviation policy only allows airport with figures of less than one million to get into that fund, in a European context under EU State rules airports across Europe can be funded by their national governments if the passenger numbers are at three million or less, at a very least aviation policy needs to change to reflect that and I think Shannon could benefit from that.
“The other issue for Shannon is connectivity to another European hub, I think Shannon management should be supported in that whether it is Paris, Schiphol or some European hub outside of Heathrow which is of huge importance to Shannon, if we had another European hub it would give us more opportunities,” Carey stated.
