Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Department is considering how best to proceed on the national aviation policy. A focus of this committee, and rightly so, has been on ensuring that we have traffic coming into the regions via our regional airports, that we get the best value out of them and that they survive. This is why I first want to focus on the review of the regional airports programme. The work on the national aviation policy might happen in tandem with that. I want to have the issues paper completed by the end of December. In quarter 1 of next year, there will be a public consultation process for six to eight weeks. People will feed into the issues paper and the consultation process, which will give us a better picture of where aviation stands next year.

I met the CEOs of many airlines over the summer and asked them to do some crystal ball gazing. If we are to have a national aviation policy, we need to know where aviation stands, how people are travelling and how their work practices have changed, which has an impact on aviation. The airlines were unsure, particularly about the business traveller. Those meetings were held three or four months ago, though, and I want the most up-to-date information, which is why I am asking chambers of commerce, multinationals, hotels, the tourism industry, investors and potential investors what connectivity they need in the regions.