You could well be right EI-BUD, I'm purely speculating as until now Padraig O Ceididh and RE have always been massively loyal to Galway and when there have been opportunities to expand at compting airports (NOC and SNN) they have steered clear to protect their own base.
But perhaps with the Stobart money coming in now the Galway element of the airline will take a back seat and SNN will become their western base as EIR. With the Dublin route likely to go in July and the Edinburgh route under serious pressure Galway may revert to just serving London airports and Manchester, the only routes that are likely to be able to co-exist with competing services from NOC and SNN.
Back to Knock, I see that Mayo TD Michael Ring has earned himself a job in the transport and tourism department as Minister of State for Tourism and Sport. I'm neither a fan of the man himself or the type of local politics he specialises in (he sometimes gets to 10 or more funerals a day!) but he is in the right department to have a say on airport funding and tourism incentives - between himself and the Taoiseach the airport should be (and I'm sure will be) getting in touch with them as our local representatives to encourage development of the facility. The senior minister, Leo Varadkar, has already been to his ancestral homeland of India to promote his local airport (Dublin) which shows that having people in the right positions in politics is an advantage that should be used where possible to stimulate growth.
Hopefully Knock can take advantage of this.