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On 16th November, the Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey T.D. answered questions on the Core Airport Management Operational Subvention (OpEx) scheme, which is available to Regional Airports on an annual basis. The subvention payable is based on projected losses by the airports in providing core services, after taking account of any surpluses from commercial activities such as catering, car-parking or other income. This is in line with the view underlying the mandatory EU guidelines on state aid that, as a general rule, airports should be self-financing. Because of a projected shortfall in the resources available to fund this scheme in 2010, the regional airports were allocated OpEx funding totalling €1,696,503 on a pro rata basis in July of this year with no airport getting the full amount it expected. This compared to €3,345,000 in 2009 with Waterford receiving the most in 2010 at €604,965, closely followed by Galway at €582,576. Knock received €356,706 and Sligo received €152,256. Kerry and Donegal received nothing, which in the case of Donegal must have come as a shock as they received €131,000 in 2009. For Kerry it was doubly disappointing, as they received nothing in 2009 either. The Minister said that he was “very much aware that payments at the reduced level have been causing difficulties for the Airports” even though the “allocation was in line with the OpEx contracts with the Airports”. All the Airports submitted additional information in support of applications for further funding and the Minister indicated that he would be in a position to “make further allocations accordingly”. Two of the airports indicated that unless funding was provided as soon as possible, they would have to review their positions. With the Department unable to subvent the operational losses from the resources available under OpEx scheme the Minister announced on 25th November that €4 million in capital savings in his Department was being transferred to address the immediate funding difficulties of the regional airports. The previous day the Department had confirmed that the National Recovery Plan 2011-2014 had targeted annual savings of €5.5 million from the “curtailment of support for regional air services from mid-2011.” The total amount being spent at the moment on regional airports is €16.9 million. This is made up of €1.9 million in OpEx funding, €3 million in CapEx funding (for capital expenditure mainly confined to addressing safety issues) and Public Service Obligation (PSO) funding of €12.2 million. The Minister indicated that the €5.5 saving would come “largely from the PSO funding.” Saving of over a third on the PSO scheme annually clearly means that these will be curtailed. The Minister has conceded that he did “not foresee us getting leave to introduce PSOs on the scale on which we had them previously” when they end in the middle of next year. EU regulations “stipulate that the airports must be at least three and a half hours away from the capital by road or rail” and this was something “negotiated three and a half to four years ago” and with the investment in public transport and road infrastructure “it will be impossible to argue the same case again” he added.