Row in council over Derry airport appointment

A row erupted at a meeting of Derry City and Strabane District Council after after an independent councillor was accused of wanting to close down the City of Derry Airport.

The comments came during a meeting of Council’s Assurance, Audit and Risk Committee at which elected members were asked to approve a recent external review carried out on the make-up of the City of Derry (CODA) (Operations) Ltd Board.

The review, which the meeting was told was carried out by a firm named Strictly Boardroom, recommended appointing an additional Non-Executive Director to the airport board, bringing the total number of Non-Executive Directors on the board to four.

The meeting heard the airport board had also agreed to appoint one of the current Non-Executive Directors as Vice Chair at an additional cost of £2,500 per annum.

Commenting, independent councillor Paul Gallagher criticised the review, which he said had ‘fallen short’ in terms of a long –term strategy for the airport.

“It’s very obscure, and the language is repetitive to say the least, where does it say ‘these are our profit margins, these are the airlines we are going to target’?” he said.

“Recruiting non-executive members is not going to solve the problems of the airport, more money is being handed out hand over fist, it’s all subvention, subvention, subvention.”

He added: “We need to have a strategic plan in place, including profit margins and looking at how we get out of the debt we’re in.”

Responding, Denise McDonnell, Head of Internal Audit and Risk Services with council, said in relation to Cllr Gallagher’s comments about what was missing from the report, the items he referred to were never intended to be included in the review.

Sinn Fein councillor Eric McGinley said that after ‘listening to Councillor Gallagher over a period of time’, it appeared the Strabane-based councillor would like the airport to close.

Cllr McGinley asked Cllr Gallagher a number of questions as to what would happen if the airport was to close, such as what alternative arrangements he would put in place for the 350,000 travellers who use it annually.

He also asked Cllr Gallagher if would be able to provide alternative employment for the full-time staff at the City of Derry Airport.

Cllr McGinley told the meeting that it ‘would be interesting to hear Cllr Gallagher’s ideas on how to develop the airport as an asset’.

Cllr Gallagher replied the ‘millions paid out by the ratepayer’ for the airport ‘would have built us a railway’ from Derry to Belfast, adding that the airport was also being ‘held to ransom by one airline who comes back and demands money willy-nilly’.

He then proposed that council defer approving the recommendations in the report and wait for it to come back with some ‘strategic value’.

The SDLP’s Gus Hastings said that in the absence of adequate rail and road infrastructure, the airport provided a direct link with the ‘main source of industry’, by having flights from Derry to London.

Independent councillor Darren O’Reilly said: “When did anyone say they were looking to shut the airport down?”

Committee chairperson, Sinn Fein councillor Sandra Duffy, said if the report was to be altered, it would mean having to bring the consultancy firm back in ‘at an extra cost to the taxpayer’.

She then asked Cllr Gallagher if he would be prepared to do that.

Cllr Gallagher said he would no longer be seeking the deferral he had previously sought, but he wouldn’t support the recommendation made in the report.

The matter went to a vote, with councillors accepting the recommendation to appoint an additional Non-Executive Director to the airport board.