Waterford Airport.

Did you read the link?

The airlines are so reluctant to move capacity out of Dublin that the DAA are literally having to offer to pay the airlines to move routes from Dublin to Cork.

Rory Gallagher guitar: Tánaiste to explore possible purchase of Fender Stratocaster for State

12 guitars gets us a runway.

This is getting stupid now. Buy the guitar and fund the runway.

i actually do agree with this, it more than likely wont get the million asking though, probably wont be anywhere near that….

I wonder will the investors pull out if the funding isn't granted soon. Then we're back to square 1.

Listened to Matt Cooper's magnified podcast interviewing Kenny Jacobs (DAA). Both Cork men waxed lyrically about plans to expand Cork Airport - knock the old terminal, and extend the current one so that it can handle up to 7 million passengers. Talked it up as the airport for the entire South.

Some shower cynically putting Waterford Airport in their MEP election videos. Probably never visited there before. Same as they did with the Hospital. FF will deliver 24/7 cardiac care? Remember that?

Oh I will absolutely follow her up on her work on the Airport.

Are there going to be planning issues connected with the runway expansion ?

I'd imagine anyone living within 5 or 10 km of either end of the runway will be strongly objecting .. to be fair with the way things work in Ireland,its kind of now or never to get any conditions or restrictions put in place , and a 737 size plane is still surprising noisy ..even if its only 1 or 2 flights per day proposed at first ..

The last update from the minister was that they airport did respond to any questions raised by the department so as it stands it is awaiting the departments decision.

we will have WART before WAT … you couldn’t make it up the man is on another planet.

Sure isn't that the obvious plan?

..think thats fairly obvious, theres clearly no political will….

…may change though after the ge, as its not looking too good for the greens, but really good for ffg…

100% it's political willingness. I've always said compare the establishment of SETU V the airport, in the notion of the "South East" working together.

We had every political representative from outside Waterford telling us to get onboard with SETU and put the region first

The same individuals haven't opened their mouth about the airport as it's not delivering anything concrete for their own parish, ignoring the benefits of tourism/travel an airport would bring.

Imagine if government were to say we're gonna build a new airport on the Kilkenny/Wexford border, WLR would be littered with politicians from Kilkenny and Wexford stating how we need to roll behind this for the betterment of the region.

Where is the same South East outcry for an airport as there were with SETU? Yes it's on government but it is also on the regions politicians and our numpties who bend over backwards for this notion of the South East while sacrificing Waterford.

Fractured from small minded GAA boundary politicians that can’t see the bigger picture. Hogan & Howlin come to mind!

All regions are fractured. Cork has the scale of 3 counties, but city eats the East and West and shares little. Limerick and Clare are tectchy as hell, West is worse. But SFADCO and WDA coordinate and had baseline funding, borrowing capacity and ability to coordinate regional agendas at various times, with great results.

It is totally a warning to Northern Ireland throwing their lot in with the South- Derry will do not better than Donegal in the current arrangement. We need an institutional rethink on regions and local Government, sadly we got big Phil.

"Ireland South Fianna Fáil MEP, Cynthia Ní Mhurchú, has criticised Eamon Ryan for refusing to meet with her to discuss the future funding of the airport."

While it is great to see Cynthia Ní Mhurchú calling this out what I can not understand, her party has been in government for 4 years now. Her party leader has been Taoiseach and is currently the Tánaiste.

I feel like there is a bit of a cop out there, "oh we want to deliver it but it's not our fault, it's the greens"

At any stage the Tánaiste could approach Ryan and say, this needs to be delivered, deliver it.

The whole thing is like a circus.

https://www.wlrfm.com/news/mep-accuses-transport-minister-of-cop-out-on-waterford-airport-371019?fbclid=IwY2xjawEZaNNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHdFpcltkQWtXWpiHkW0n2pqgJ3jUTNk-7fL8xokIozl6jsHm4zm-JR_w_A_aem_b4ytSm5lxf_TVS_q9-o7qA

If I was Mary Butler now or Adam Wyse I would be trying to get this sorted asap. This issue is going to damage FF as they are in government and this project is completely being delayed by Ryan. Greens are finished next election so will FF in Waterford unless the airport is sorted. Time for them to speak up for Waterford.

Neither is Dublin Airport for the whole country.. It's at the wrong side of Dublin to make it convenient for the whole country

You are also only looking at it from Irish people looking to go abroad, what about people looking to come to Ireland.

You can now market the South East directly by flying into the south East, setting a base there and exploring the area.

Dead right , and theres an element of "we are where we are " with Waterford airport , but Waterford doesn't have the established "mass" or the road Network/ bus network ect ..

Road Network? Have you travelled to Waterford Airport, connected via the M9 and N25, dual carriageway by pass all the way to the airport road, which is then probably a 5-8 minute drive on a fairly decent single lane carriageway, what more do you want from a road point of view?

The airport is only 10km from the bus and train station in Waterford so while not ideal that it has no bus network it is fairly easy to get to Waterford via bus/rail and a short taxi spin to the airport.

The size of Dublin airport and it doesn't even have train connection!

If Waterford was to retain flights and numbers increased you would see a bus route factored in as it would make logical sense. I presume any airport would need X amount of passengers before being serviced by public transport as it needs to be viable.

That said regarding buses even bus networkers from Kerry and knock Airports are mainly town routes which go to the airport. As in it's not possible to get a direct bus from a town directly to the airport bar the nearest town obviously.

Taking cork as an example I cannot get a direct bus from Waterford to cork airport, I need to take three buses to get there at a time of over 3 hours.

"Still undergoing stress testing and additional queries. No time line can be laid down. "

The greatest crock of horse sh#t ever.

…this statement more accurately describes whats happening here, ffg have an astonishing 'talent' of directing public anger and frustration towards their government partners, leading to less pointed towards them, its one hell of a tactic, and it works!

…ffg control the purse!

Surely this decision has to be made eventually, they cannot keep kicking the can indefinitely

A decision has been made.

it's to keep kicking it down the road.

So Mr Cullinane has actually woken up and said something!!!