Waterford Junior Minister John Halligan says he expects a memo proposing the approval of 5 million euro in Government funding towards a runway extension plan to be brought to Cabinet shortly.

The runway extension will cost 12 million euro in total, with the remaining €7 million to be provided by private investors and local authorities in the region.

Transport Minister Shane Ross was in Waterford this morning where he met with board members and management at Waterford Airport.

“The positives were certainly top of the agenda today and what we heard were the reasons why the region needed it (funding for the airport),” he said. “We have to look at it in a balanced way and see if it’s good for Ireland, if it’s good for tourism, if it’s good for business and in particular, if it’s good for the South East.”

The Minister was non-committal when it came to guarantees over the runway funding, although he did say that there was a compelling case.

“I can’t make any statement on that, all I can say is that John Halligan has been putting the case very strongly for many months, and I’ve been listening carefully.”