BEGRUDGING ATTITUDE' OF DUBLIN MEDIA RAPPED
14 May 1997
County manager backs Kenny in bitter airport row
Tom Kelly Reports
Mayo County Manager Des Mahon has publicly backed Minister for Trade & Tourism Mr Enda Kenny in the escalating and bitter row over the Knock Airport tax designation proposal.
Mr. Mahon said the council was committed to putting the necessary infrastructure in place to ensure the region would develop along the lines which Minister Kenny has predicted.
He said the initial phase of this work was the provision of a new road to the airport at an overall cost of £1.7m., a scheme which would be completed by the end of the year.
Mr. Mahon, who is also a member of the board of directors of Knock Airport, outlined a strategic plan had been put in place to create greater industrial development at the centre.
He was joined in welcoming the tax designation plan by the chairman of Mayo County Council, Mr. Pat McHugh, who described it as one of the most exciting projects ever to come to the West of Ireland.
But he criticised certain sections of the Dublin media for their 'begrudging attitude' to the announcement.
"The sky is the limit as far as Knock Airport is concerned," said Mr. McHugh.
There was scathing criticism by members of the authority of an article which appeared in the Sunday Independent on May 11th which quoted Minister Kenny as saying he was 'in error' in relation to the involvement of Alliance International in Knock.
Fine Gael Senator Paddy Burke slammed the report as 'inaccurate and totally untrue.'
But the senior journalist at the centre of the row, Kevin Moore, said there was no question of him misquoting the Minister.
Said Mr. Moore: "He told me quite clearly that he was in error to state in his announcement that master planners of Alliance international had been in discussion with the I.D.A. on a number of occasions regarding their plans for Knock.
"The truth is, as verified to me by Colm Donlon, the I.D.A.'s public relations officer, was that Alliance International had been in discussions with the I.D.A. regarding proposals for Shannon Airport."
Mr. Moore, who worked in Galway for many years, rejected suggestions made by members of Mayo County Council that his report was 'biased and smacked of begrudgery towards a rural community.'
"The Minister has not come clean about the fact that Alliance International will be subject to 36 per cent corporation tax if they decide to locate at Knock and not 10 per cent as being suggested. It would take special E.U. approval to change that situation, and I do not believe that will happen."
In another intriguing twist in the story, Paul Byrne of Hardwicke, the property development company which won the contract to build Dublin's International Financial Services Centre, confirmed he had discussions with Alliance International and the Board of Knock Airport regarding a Knock base.
The American firm would qualify for 10 per cent corporation tax if they set up a manufacturing firm at Knock.
Meanwhile, there are fears that Alliance International may be scared off by the unfavourable publicity and controversy.
In a single line comment last night, The Parish Priest of Knock Airport, Monsignor Dominick Greally, who is the Archbishop's representative on the airport board, said: "I would hope the matter will not become a political football and that the Board of Knock Airport will be given a chance to do business."
Minister Kenny has issued a detailed response to the Sunday Independent article which appears on our Election '97 page.
