Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Doyle. Nobody has full expertise here but both companies are significant players and they have the leadership to drive this agenda. With due respect to the Department and to public health, if one is waiting for civil servants to drive an agenda one will be waiting quite a length of time. I suggest that both companies which are looking for subsidies from the State should be proactive in offering and being seen to drive solutions here.

Referring to Mr. Doyle’s point on the task force, planned airport infrastructural programmes should be delivered in full and on time. I refer to the comment on the national children’s hospital as I am not quite sure what sort of a statement that is to put into a document. It is aspirational and does not have anything in it. Will the witness come back to me in writing on how he envisages this being done through procurement in the future?

Turning to Mr. Wilson on state aid and subsidies to travel, he stated in his document that all of the state aid that has been provided throughout Europe is on a magnitude many times that which we in Ireland can afford. If subsidies were to be offered to companies such as Ryanair, I would like to see this done on a regional basis. As bad as Dublin Airport is, the regions are going to be served even more poorly into the future. Will Ryanair look at the question of regional subsidies in trying to create more aircraft capacity for the regional airports?