Waterford Airport.

I won't disagree I'm not sure that I have any faith in the board, comers or management.

You will previously see me questioning what is in it for the Galway lads as we know there is little to no return on an investment in a regional airport.

My thinking was, if the airport is as critical as the government say it is, what's stopping them pumping in €30 million, removing the board and management and replacing them with a new board and management.

I'm just sick to death of government waffle saying how important it is and doing f all about it.

I'd imagine that's the scenario the Comers would love. A CPO where they get a hefty chunk of public money to buy out their stake.

Yeah, coming up with a detailed costed plan that encompasses the requirements of the existing stakeholders, new investors, the Govt and three councils is exactly the same as reading and reviewing the resulting report.

As far as I recall, the Comer brothers only came on board in August 2022. I would imagine it is very difficult to get people to confirm their time and money on the very thin promise of govt support for the South East. I mean it would be unheard of that the Govt was just kicking the can down the road when they insisted on matching funds but you can’t really be sure can you?
Id say there was total shock in the Dept of Transport when the Comets came on board. We will probably never get the extension but it’s good to catch the Cork/ Dublin govt out on their bullsh1t.

Forgive me for saying so but you seem determined to find fault with it. Its simple for us.. People,private and local authority are prepared to put money into it and are waiting for a government response. Its very small money and worth a bet to deliver a piece of infrastructure. All else is simply raking over the coals. Its a yes or no job in truth.

is that you Ryan?

The only way you can have that conversation is by seeing the business case.

I would imagine due to commerical sensitive subjects it won't be available to the public.

The positives I see, for relatively small money, completion of the runway I would expect we see return flights to London, possibly other UK city's and the chance of mainland EU/summer destinations.

This would inturn increase employment locally for the airport itself and other businesses linked to the airport.

It helps increase tourists into Waterford and the South East (providing it's marketed abroad)

It increases the chances of increased FDI, international students for Waterford campuses. It opens the doors to other businesses locating here who may have offices else where.

The future for R117 is secured, aero club and Atlantic flight training school. Opportunities in aircraft maintenance can be explored as well as freight/cargo.

Granted the majority of the above might not materialise but there is a chance that it would.

Not investing means any chance of the above is gone.

The risk, government invest, it doesn't work people complain and moan that government invested in a white elephant and its forgotten about in a number of weeks.

Concerns, are the Comer brothers really on board?

What happens it government commit but the private investment is not there?

I presume they are questions, topics that the department are exploring.

Aye, it just made me lol.

Although it will never happen I do think it shows there is a need for another airport along the east/south east which would strengthen Waterford's case.

Airport already in existence, just needs small money to make it a viable option.

granted it is a lot nearer to Dublin

…do we really want a significant amount of our critical infrastructure to be foreign owned, as it seems to be working well for many not so well developed countries!

yea we re kinna in a bind, governments have been severely curtailed in being able to finance such critical infrastructure, deficit spending etc, or lack of, this is forcing us towards methods such as foreign investment which is causing its own set of problems. foreign investment plays a critical role, and can be positive for everyone, but sometimes, too much is simply that, i am very concerned about how we re all being effectively forced into this approach for our critical needs, was only listening to a podcast about this financialisation of our economies recently, and the operations of the institutions behind it, disturbing stuff really….

I thought the same, surely is Harris committed to one of the following options 24/7 cardiac care, SETU or airport then Shanahan would have gabe support.

The airport will be used as a carrot for the next election and will disappear once again!

Disappear as it the new government will go silent on it, news articles will stop reporting on it and then it will pop up again depending who the flavour of the day is.

I don't mean the airport disappearing as in ceasing operations

Front page of the paper today saying the government are paying out 1 million a month to accommodate pets for Ukrainians ,and here we are cant even get 12 million to support an airport.

there's an election coming up soon though so the government may take this as an opportunity to look good in the se region

In the run up to the election looking good will be "we support the extension at Waterford airport and we are close to delivering it" once the election passes so does the empty promises.

They have had 14 years to invest in the airport, they could have competed the whole works without private investment for a fraction of what it is going to cost government now.

If the private investment is there then the airport need to call their bluff and just start work, start one end of the extension or start widening one side of the runway, start some sort of work then we can harp onto government that we put out money where our mouth is so cough up

https://www.wlrfm.com/news/waterford-airport-fragility-357027

Not looking good