Tony Mulcahy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Senator MacSharry raised this issue in the Seanad with me and I made the clear point to him that Knock is not Shannon. There is an industrial base in Shannon, and I repeat that. We all talk about passenger numbers. I would like to see the industrial base redeveloped because we could get major growth in that area. That is not to take away from Knock but we must be very clear on that. There is 2,000 acres of development land on the back of Shannon Airport that is structured and ready to go. Some of the buildings are old and we will need to remodel some and knock down others but the target must be to fill up the industrial estate and if we get passenger numbers on the back of that it would be welcome. We will work with that and keep going.