Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Cornelis. It would be important that we would get clarification on that. The maps are somewhat misleading. The members will be aware we have county boundaries. We have subregional boundaries as well, such as the mid-west. It is important to establish that. For Shannon and Cork airports, it matters a great deal. We have seen throughout Europe that Covid has now almost caught up in rural and urban areas, but the trend for many months was that Covid thrived in urban settings and less so in rural areas.

I have a final question for the Irish Aviation Authority. One of the common themes of discussion here in this committee in recent weeks has been the imbalance of aviation where Dublin, in the second quarter of this year, had 155,000 passengers and Shannon had only a couple of hundred. There is a bit of ministerial design of policy required here but safety is one of the IAA's major oversight functions.

Do the witnesses believe that at a time of high Covid figures and as we try to look for a pathway forward over the coming months, on safety grounds alone and moving beyond what should morally happen in terms of regions and peripheral regions, aviation should be dispersed throughout the various terminuses around Ireland, not just in Dublin but also Shannon and Cork? There are 155,000 versus a couple of hundred. Should people be spread more evenly on safety grounds alone? Is there a heightened role for Shannon Airport in the months ahead as we try to strategise our way out of this crisis?