Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I might say a word about aviation and maritime, and then a bit about sports, maybe, for four or five minutes, because these are very important areas which were not covered earlier to the degree one would want.

On aviation, I draw the committee's attention to the fact that we published the country's first ever national aviation policy in August. It contains 73 actions, all of which reflect my view that aviation and our airports are not a consequence, but a cause, of economic growth. If one looks at what is happening in all of the airports at present, if one looks at the engagement that this Government has had with the aviation sector, it has brought more jobs into Ireland, it has brought more tourists into Ireland and it has developed a platform for our country to grow sustainably in the future. By 2020, we believe, Irish airports will handle approximately 33 million passengers per year.

In that document, I guess there are only two points I would want to emphasise. The first is that the number one policy that underpins everything we would do in aviation is safety and security. That is the bedrock upon which we grow our access to the rest of the world. We have placed considerable focus on how we can grow connectivity, how we can grow competition on key routes into Ireland and how we can support the State and regional airports. There are different steps against different airports, depending on their nature. Each of the State airports, which, as the committee will be aware, are Dublin, Cork and Shannon, have clear plans regarding how they want to develop in the future. For the regional airports, one of which is in Deputy Griffin's constituency, I am pleased to be able to say that earlier in the year we published the regional airport plan, which outlines the supports that we want to give to regional airports between 2015 and 2019 and outlines the legal framework within which we need to make those supports available and that has now been agreed with the European Commission. The next phase, in aviation, will be setting in place the national aviation development forum, which will be a broad group of stakeholders across the sector which we will use to consult as we look to develop Irish aviation in the future.

On maritime, there are two sections to which I would draw the committee's attention. The first is the status of the Harbours Bill 2015, which has completed Second Stage in the Dáil and will shortly come here for Committee Stage consideration. I believe this is the most important legislation on the ports sector for decades and I look forward to working with the committee to ensure its enactment. I also launched, earlier this year, the new national maritime safety strategy, which concludes 33 actions to make the maritime sector, our seas and rivers, as safe as possible.

I continue to place considerable value on the Irish Coast Guard and the work that my Department has done in upgrading the fleet of helicopters available to it. The deployment of new Sikorsky helicopters gives them tools that will significantly improve the already great service that they can deliver. With the services and technology available through Valentia Island and the work that the Irish Coast Guard has done there, it now has the ability to cover the breadth of Ireland. It is a sign of the support the Government has given them.

On sports, I merely want to underscore the importance of the setting up of the Sports Ireland organisation. The Bill in that regard has now been enacted. I also note that work is already under way on the national indoor arena in the National Sports Campus in Abbotstown and in supporting our athletes as they get ready for the Olympics in Rio in 2016.

We will never have the money needed to support everything that everybody wants us to do but I believe, across my Department, we are making steady progress in areas that will be to the benefit of the country in the long run.