How the Waterford Airport runway extension proposal came full circle
Waterford Regional Airport, photo by Joe Evans.
The Minister for Transport has provided a full timeline of the information sought and received about Waterford Airport.
The information was released as part of a set of Parliamentary Questions (PQs) submitted by Waterford Sinn Fein TD David Cullinane.
According to the response from Minister Darragh O'Brien, the "initial appraisal" of the airport's "Project Outline Document" is now complete and further clarifications have been sought.
“The Project Outline Document is an important step in the project lifecycle in that it has allowed Waterford Airport (as the Sponsoring Agency) to outline its intentions for the project and to receive feedback that will inform the development of a Preliminary Business Case under the Infrastructure Guidelines,” said the Minister.
On July 10, 2025 Deputy Cullinane submitted six parliamentary questions.
Those were:
- Did he receive a business case in line with the Public Spending Code?
- If funding is made available
- The dates of any meetings and the names of those present.
- What are the updated costs of funding the runway?
- If there are any caveats to the Programme for Government commitment
- And an outline of the information sought from the airport and the dates requested.
In each case, he asked the Minister to make a statement.
The Minister took all six PQs together and gave a timeline of the meetings and information provided from December 2023 to July 2024.
According to the ministers answer, the Waterford Airport’s Development Proposal was submitted to the Department on December 13, 2023 and acknowledged by the department on December 15.
This is what came to be known as the business case.
On February 20, 2024, officials from the Department of Transport met with Airport management.
At that meeting, the airport was informed of an “initial appraisal” that was undertaken, which resulted in questions and clarification requests being sought.
The department provided findings of its initial appraisal to the airport on February 22, 2024.
There was a second meeting, online, on March 4, 2024, to check on the airport's progress.
The airport said they hoped to respond within two to three weeks.
Waterford Airport responded on April 23, 2024, with an updated “development proposal.” According to Minister O’Brien, some issues were clarified, but others were not.
The third meeting took place on May 3, 2024, when the then Minister for State, Jack Chambers, met with the board of the airport.
Minister Mary Butler and the CEO of Waterford City and County Council were present.
The topic of the meeting was the “acceleration of the appraisal process.” A delayed cover letter for the revised proposal was submitted to the department on May 9, 2024.
May 14 and 27, unaudited management accounts and balance sheet for 2023, and signed audited financial statements for 2021 and 2022, were received from Waterford Airport.
Waterford Airport requested to address remaining queries relating to project costs, local authority shareholding position, project governance, land transfers and planning permission on May 27, 2024.
They did so on May 31, except the local authority shareholding and the Department of Transport sought clarification on June 13.
On June 25, Waterford Airport requested to address queries relating to financial statements submitted, position in relation to 2023 Financial Statements and the projected staff and operating costs put forward by the airport in its forecast P&L to 2028.
And they did so on July 2, 2024.
Airport management then requested (July 16) to address the outstanding query on the approach to the Appraisal Plan and did so the following day.
There is no information on what that query was, and that is where the timeline finishes.
But of course, that was not where the matter ended.
In October 2024, then Minister for State James Lawless compared the extension of the runway to a “pig in a poke.” He also said the “business case” could be stronger.
In April this year, and in response to a PQ from Deputy Conor McGuinness, the Minister for Transport said his department had concluded its initial assessment of Waterford Airport’s development proposal in line with the requirements under the Transport Appraisal Framework.
They were, he said, “considering next steps". The most recent meeting took place on July 2 and was attended by both Waterford’s Ministers of State, Chief Executive of Waterford City and County Council Sean McKeown and Council Director of Services Michael Quinn, as well as the Secretary General, Head of Aviation, Principal Aviation Officer and the Minister for Transport.
In response to Deputy Cullinane’s question regarding this meeting, the Minister said: “Any potential Government support will be considered when this engagement and project appraisal is complete.” The minister went on to say that the initial appraisal of the project proposal has been completed.
And another set of clarifications has now been sought.
In this time, the cost of developing the runway has more than doubled.
According to the Minister's response, the cost in 2018 when the project was first proposed was €12 million.
And the Exchequer was asked to provide €5 million.
The estimated cost of extending the runway at Waterford Airport is now €27 million, and the funding requested from the Government is €12 million.
