‘Is there a Plan B for Waterford Airport?’ – councillors feel fobbed off
Councillors enquired about a recent letter sent to the Minister for Transport, and if there's a 'Plan B' for Waterford Airport should government not allocate funding for the runway extension.
The issue of Waterford Airport was once again a pertinent one at a recent plenary meeting of Waterford Council.
Councillors enquired about a recent letter sent to the Minister for Transport, and if there's a 'Plan B' for the airport should government not allocate funding for the runway extension.
Cllr Joeanne Bailey asked whether a letter sent to Minister for Transport Darragh O’Brien from Mayor Jason Murphy on behalf of the Council had been responded to.
Waterford Council Chief Executive Officer Sean McKeown confirmed that no response had been received.
Reacting, Cllr Mary Roche said: “The fact that the Minister hasn’t even acknowledged a receipt of the letter from the Mayor of this council on behalf of the members is really astonishing and not good enough.
“This is an urgent issue and if the job is not done this summer we’ll lose another year. We’re literally just being fobbed off. We have to do everything we possibly can and to be just ignored is really not good enough.”
Meanwhile, Independent Councillor Donal Barry raised that the ongoing delay in making a decision on funding Waterford Airport was compounded last week by the news of a €200 million investment in Cork Airport.
“The people of Waterford are angry about this,” Cllr Barry said.
At the recent meeting, Sinn Féin’s Cllr Jim Griffin asked Council executives whether a "plan B" was being considered for the airport due to the lack of government support to date.
Cllr Griffin said: “Unfortunately we’ve been trying to get the government on board for several years now and we haven’t got answers and it's not looking like an answer is coming.
"I just wanted to ask have we got plan B and will we look at plan B?"
Cllr Griffin suggested approaching multinational companies based locally in Waterford, such as Sanofi and Bausch & Lomb, to see if they are “willing to put their shoulder to the wheel".
