John Lyons (Dublin North West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will be brief. I have just one question and it relates to the airport. Obviously, having the longer airport runway means that planes with jet engines can land, which opens up opportunities. Are there any discussions on the possibility that if this were to happen particular airlines would be willing to consider opening up routes in Waterford?

I want to keep this conversation real. I am a Dublin based Deputy and the reality, in terms of foreign direct investment, is that when the executives of companies like Google, PayPal and their brother and sister companies come to this country they do not want to travel any further than about an hour when they got off a transatlantic flight to go to their company.

This point is something of an elephant in the room. While this may open up something, from a practical point of view and in particular with regard to foreign direct investment, not many companies - and transatlantic companies in particular - will be willing to consider flying to London and then on to Waterford. There are issues in this regard, and I would be doing the witnesses a disfavour were I not to make this point. However, Deputy Ann Phelan made a good point that one strength Waterford will have will be in its indigenous industries, in particular given the changes to the milk quota regime and so on from 2014 onwards. However, I seek an answer to that question on the runway and, were this to happen, the intention of any airline in this regard.