Dr. Órlaith Borthwick:

In response to Deputy O'Donnell, connectivity is critical to the position taken by the chambers of commerce on this issue. As I stated earlier, there are approximately 150 US multinational companies in the catchment region for Shannon Airport. These employ 30,000 people directly. We usually apply a multiplier of three to calculate indirect jobs, which means these 30,000 jobs support approximately 90,000 indirect jobs. Consider the effect of this in Limerick, where we have established firms such as Analog Devices, Stryker Ireland and Dell Computers. In the past year, we have had announcements from Regeneron, Optel Vision and Viagogo and today we had an announcement from Icon plc. We also have financial companies such as Northern Trust, which has based huge numbers in the region and is expanding. There are also significant numbers employed directly in tourism. In the mid west alone, some 25,000 people are employed. We have spoken to our colleagues in the Irish Hotels Federation about this and they have very much the same concerns as us regarding the impact any change in connectivity will have on the jobs they support.