Mr. Niall Gibbons:

Sorry, yes. Air access from North America is that it has been a strong journey for the island of Ireland. For example, ten years ago, there were 35,000 seats a week from the United States and Canada and now there are approximately 65,000. Those are concentrated more into Dublin, although Norwegian Air, when it opened last year, did open it to Dublin, Belfast, Shannon and Cork. Unfortunately, we have lost the Belfast link.

There used be three air carriers that went from Canada into Belfast. We do not have any now. It is all concentrated into Dublin, and a small bit into Shannon. Cork has lost the winter service provided by Norwegian Air. It has gone on sale for next summer. Norwegian Air has expanded operations slightly into Shannon Airport. We remain concerned regarding direct air access because that is the lead indicator for tourism performance. We will continue to work as best we can to encourage more direct air access into Belfast but it is proving difficult. The view of the American carriers is that a lot of people want to spend part of their holiday in Dublin, although the Northern Ireland market is growing. The other issue is that customs and border clearance in Dublin and Shannon makes a huge difference to the ease of travel. That facility is not available in Belfast at present.