INDUSTRIAL action over the plan to separate Shannon airport from the DAA could be on the cards over Christmas. And a report compiled for the trade unions and leaked to the Limerick Post warns that the business plan for the future of the airport, which is only expected to be announced on Friday, may not stack up. Sources in SIPTU warned that “if there are no guarantees of terms and conditions of employment under the new company, there could be industrial action within four weeks. The bigger concern we have is the viability of the airport itself under this plan”.
Union bosses did not have direct sight of the report which the two expert groups compiled for Transport Minister Leo Varadkar but it was agreed that they could bring in an independent consultancy group to look at the report and outline their opinion in confidence.
Congress retained global consultancy group, Mazars, to examine the plan and give their opinion. In the conclusions, which the Limerick Post has had sight of, the consultants warn that its success is dependant on certain growth areas that are not guarenteed and in the case of passenger numbers, is “considerably in excess of the underlining growth of the total Irish market”.
Sources say there is widespread concern about the plans for separation and for the future of jobs, pay and conditions for staff.
The source of the leaked report said that staff “have been keeping quiet up to now but the Mazars report proves what we feared – that the business plan is short on specifics and hard facts and big on assumptions and aspirations”.
‘Whatever is said about the DAA being a big bad wolf to Shannon, at least in the DAA there is a safety net when things go wrong. Now what is proposed is for Shannon to set up in direct competition. How is the DAA going to regard Shannon then?”
Workers who took a three-year pay cut to help refinance the DAA are asking where that investment goes if the airport separates.
The Mazars report also warns on reliance on revenues from passenger growth far in excess of the current national pattern and the development of an aeronautical training centre.
“Without this growth, the plan is destined to fail,” Mazars says in its conclusions.
While Shannon’s legacy debt will be written off, there is no mention of profits from Aer Rianta International (ARI) being allocated to Shannon. Liam Skelly, former director of Shannon Airport and former chief executive of ARI along with Michael Hanrahan, former head of finance at Shannon airport have waged a campaign to keep ARI at Shannon.
Both point to the fact that ARI, and the hugely profitable duty-free trade, started in Shannon. It was created to ensure a viable future for the airport. Pointing out that Shannon has handed Dublin millions in the form of ARI, Mr Skelly said: “we’re after giving the bones of €700 million to the DAA to invest in Terminal 2. What’s going to happen about that?”
Mr Hanrahan said: “For the life of me, I can’t see why ARI should stay in Dublin. If it started in Dublin, we would have no claim on it”.
The Mazars report also points out that a “rationale and business model to support the €2 million annual expenditure and to explain how value will be added and a commercial return obtained has not been included in the business plan”.
Further reliance on the rents from assets does not allow for the fact that the “level of unoccupied property is very high”, the report states.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions met with members of Cabinet on Thursday to discuss the issues highlighted in the report.
It is expected that an announcement on the separation will be made in the next four days and there is speculation that it will coincide with Ryanair confirming that it will consolidate its operation at Shannon with a number of new routes.
