Fine Gael is the only government party truly committed to delivering the long-awaited runway extension at Waterford Airport.
That's according to Fine Gael Councillor and Airport Board member Jim D'arcy.
Junior Transport Minister James Lawless says an assessment has highlighted a number of weaknesses in the development proposal.
Speaking on Deise Today, Cllr. D'arcy said Fianna Fail have done a complete U-turn on their stance.
"As it turns out now, there's only one government party, which is Fine Gael, we're the only one saying that we're completely committed to it. The Taoiseach was here on your show and on WLR - we are completely committed to it. Where's the Tánaiste? Fianna Fáil have done a complete u-turn on this. It was in 2007 that Fianna Fáil gave a commitment to the Waterford Airport. We're all taken aback by Minister Lawless. We were completely taken aback with his comments. We thought Fianna Fáil were in the bag here. We thought they were on board."
He believes that not having a government minister in Waterford has contributed to delays. Despite securing private investment, the government are yet to sign off on additional funding that will pave the way for the extension. Cllr D'arcy said there's one standout reason why there's been no progress on the matter.
"You can't be a city without an airport. You can't have economic development. It's huge - what it'll bring in terms of employment alone to have a properly functioning airport. The reality of it is that we haven't had the political clout to deliver it. That's the truth of it. We haven't had a minister that can see this thing across the line. That has been the problem for basically the last 20 years. It's not an anti-Waterford thing. It's that we don't have the political clout to develop our airport correctly."
"I feel that we've been missing that and we've been missing that for a while. We will have it in the manifesto that to deliver the airport to Waterford, the extension and the investment that is needed to the current proposal. Senator John Cummins, to be fair to him, is very strong on that. To be honest with you, we need to get him elected."
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