Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Ms Hynes and wish her well.

Coming from County Leitrim, my concerns are obviously about the future viability of Ireland West Airport Knock. I appreciate that Ms Hynes is present primarily to talk about increasing passenger numbers and making Shannon Airport viable again. Anybody in the west would welcome this in principle. My focus is very much on one aspect of Ms Hynes's excellent presentation in which she referred to Shannon Airport being used as a terminal and said she wanted to increase the number of passengers entering the country. This, in a sense, counters the concerns about existing catchment areas within Ireland. Obviously, the growth in numbers will require an increase in the number of passengers from overseas. What plans are there at this early stage to attract more passengers from markets that are already reasonably well developed such as the German market?

I understand commercial sensitivities prevent Ms Hynes from answering certain questions. That said, it seems one of the key areas concerns Ryanair. The relationship Shannon Airport has had with Ryanair has been somewhat fraught during the years. How does Ms Hynes envisage that relationship panning out during her term of office? It seems it could be a key driver for bringing more people into Ireland. The problem is that the increase in tourist numbers in recent years, modest as it has been, seems to be centred almost exclusively on Dublin and surrounding counties. It is not filtering into the west. In spite of there being a very developed tourism infrastructure across the west, including counties Kerry, Limerick, Clare, Galway, Mayo, Leitrim and Donegal, we are not gaining from the increase. Many family-owned businesses in the tourism sector are actually struggling and will obviously be looking on Shannon as an international airport. It is very deep in the psyche of the Irish people. That is why I would like Ms Hynes's views on increasing the number of passengers coming to Ireland from some of the developed tourism markets.