Accusations fly but no take-off for airport funding
Waterford Airport
In July this year, the Minister and Department for Transport met with Mary Butler and John Cummins, as well as Waterford City and County Council to discuss Waterford Airport.
Following that meeting, Minister Mary Butler took to WLR to update the public, while Minister Cummins spoke to the Waterford News and Star.
Those conversations yielded bombshells and promises.
The public learned that the 2019 business case submitted by the airport was not, in fact, a business case.
The project was effectively back at square one in terms of applying for government funding.
But the airport and local ministers, at least, were confident they could get the documents together and keep the project on track.
The Waterford News and Star has obtained, under the Freedom of Information Act 2014, the draft minutes of that meeting.
The minutes show the accusations, frustrations, jibes and concessions made by all parties.
Here is what we learned about the July 2 meeting.
In July this year, the Minister and Department for Transport met with Mary Butler and John Cummins, as well as Waterford City and County Council to discuss Waterford Airport.
Following that meeting, Minister Mary Butler took to WLR to update the public, while Minister Cummins spoke to the Waterford News and Star.
Those conversations yielded bombshells and promises.
We learned that the 2019 business case submitted by the airport was not, in fact, a business case.
The project was effectively back at square one in terms of applying for government funding.
But the airport and local ministers, at least, were confident they could get the documents together and keep the project on track.
The Waterford News and Star has obtained, under the Freedom of Information Act 2014, the draft minutes of that meeting.
The minutes show the accusations, frustrations, jibes and concessions made by all parties.
Here is what we learned about the July 2 meeting.
In June 2019, it was announced that the government would provide €5 million in funding for the runway extension, which was at the time projected to cost €12 million.
However, according to the minutes obtained by this paper, Secretary General Ken Spratt said that while there had been an “approval in principle,” the conditions for the funding had not been met by the airport.
The minutes do not say what conditions were not met.
The Secretary General acknowledged the impact of Covid-19 but said the airport needed to comply with the Public Spending Code.
The minutes say: “All that is being asked of the Airport is to go through the same process as all of our projects- the c. 586 departmental projects at various stages under the Infrastructure Guidelines in the Quality Assurance Process 2023 Report was referenced for context.”
The CEO of WCC said it was “the board’s view that everything that had been asked of them had been provided and wasn’t aware of the 2021 correspondence from Minister Naughton in which she advised that the airport needed to comply with the Guidelines.”
The minutes show that Minister O’Brien agreed that the conditions were not met and that the “most expeditious route to a decision was for the airport to provide the preliminary business case, as the next step under the Infrastructure Guidelines.”
Following the meeting in July, Minister Mary Butler told WLR that the Department of Transport was of the view that what was submitted by the airport in 2019 was not a business case.
This was met with shock locally, as the document had been referred to as a business case by local representatives as well as ministers for the past five years, and even at one public engagement by the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
The minutes refer to the 2019 document as the “Project Outline Document.”
The minutes show that both Ministers Mary Butler and John Cummins were noted to have “expressed disappointment and frustration” throughout the meeting.
John Cummins felt that the only thing that had changed since 2019 was the cost of the project and that the 2019 agreement should stand.
Minister Mary Butler felt that going through the steps of the infrastructure guidelines was “wasting time.”
The minutes show that Minister Cummins tried to push for a decision “either negative or positive” by the start of November.
This, he said, would mean work on the runway could start in the spring.
But, Transport Officials are recorded as saying they could not guarantee a decision by November.
They said all projects are treated equally in assessment and timelines vary.
The officials referenced Cork Airport, which required €6 million in Exchequer funding and took around a year to develop the final business case.
“The Department advised that while the ball was in Waterford Airport’s court, it would continue to assist the airport in developing the documents required as it had done in relation to the development of the Project Outline Document.”
Minister Butler said WCCC was “indicating” three to six months was all that was needed to provide the preliminary business case.
The minutes also say: “Minister Butler queried whether the Department had a fundamental objection to the terms of the proposed restructuring or around the investors and indicated that there was a perception that if WCCC had a bigger equity stake, the proposal might be looked on more favourably,” said the minutes.
Minister O’Brien rejected the idea and said that investors were “not his concern and that he was not aware of any specific concerns in that regard.” This is usually assessed at a later stage, but he would review the proposed model and give an “initial view” to aid in the progress.
It was decided that the meeting would consider the proposal in terms of equity and ownership.
The airport are to submit a preliminary business case as that is the next step inn the Government’s Infrastructure Guidelines.
The department will consider the preliminary business case as a matter of priority, but the minutes note “it had to stack up.”
The meeting took place between 5:15pm and 7:15pm on Tuesday, July 2, 2025.
In attendance for the Department of Transport was the Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien, Secretary General Ken Spratt, Assistant Secretary Ethna Brogan and Principal Officer Nicola Hanes.
For Waterford City and County Council and the airport, CEO of WCCC and Director on the board of Waterford Airport, Sean McKeon, Director of Services for Economic Development at WCCC, Michael Quinn, and Ministers Mary Butler and John Cummins, were present.
The title of the meeting was Minutes of Ministerial Meeting on Waterford Airport.
And the purpose was to discuss the next steps regarding the Waterford Airport Development Proposal.
The meeting opened with the minister acknowledging the passing of the Chair of Waterford Airport, Dan Browne, and his commitment to this project.”
A small section of the minutes (11 lines) was redacted under Section 36(1)(b) of the act.
These were under a section of the minutes marked CEO of WCCC and seemed to relate to the airport board, stakeholders and commercial viability.
In their letter for the FOI request, the Department of Transport Deciding Officer said they had redacted the section as it related to commercially sensitive information.
They said they did not have permission to share the information and were of the opinion, the redacted information “could reasonably be expected to prejudice their competitive position.”
However, with the exception of this section, the minutes were provided in full.
