No travel tax exemption for Shannon

 Opposition party Fine Gael's Deputy Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Pat Breen T.D. tabled a question in Dail Eireann (Parliament) this week asking Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan to exempt airlines using Shannon Airport from the €10 travel tax for a period of two years following the breakdown in discussions last week between the Shannon Airport Authority (SAA) and Ryanair.

Minister Lenihan responded in a written reply yesterday. His response in the negative is word for word identical to that given in September last when Deputy Breen asked if the Minister would review the imposition of the travel tax following the announcement of Aer Lingus' year end losses. It's good to see that the Minister is not wasting tax payers money developing new answers !