Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I was in the committee meeting earlier and I had to go to the Joint Committee on Health, but I have been following most of the proceedings here. It was devastating for everyone in the mid-west and the west to hear just a week ago that Aer Lingus and Ryanair were scaling back and pulling some of their winter flights from Shannon and in the case of Aer Lingus, not resuming flights there until the summer schedule begins at the start of April, which is of serious concern. They would claim it is a commercial decision. If people are not booking and not flying, they see no point in putting aeroplanes in the sky. They would also attribute much of it to procrastination in fully implementing the traffic light system.

I have heard what the Minister already told the committee. Given that Shannon, Cork and Dublin airports have clearly indicated they have the capacity and just need ministerial approval to set up their testing at airports, why have we had the procrastination? Why was it suggested last week that this might not be in place until Christmas?