Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I agree that better regional balance is the key to the national planning framework. I keep coming back to the fact that my first priority is investment in the public transport infrastructure in Limerick, Cork and Waterford. It is critical that the cities outside Dublin have the ability to scale up to counterbalance the excessive development of the east coast versus the south west, the north and the north west. That has to be central to any NDP review.

The post office network is critical to our country. That is even more true now that we are seeing significant disruption in the banking sector not only because of Covid-19 and other events, but because an underlying change is occurring. The development of mobile banking is undermining traditional banking models. We recently saw the unwelcome news that Bank of Ireland is to close 100 of its branches. Ulster Bank is in real difficulty, closing and, in effect, being taken over. I believe that the post office network is a critical bulwark against that trend and we need to protect and maintain a centre in our communities where a whole range of services, including financial and State services, are available. The barrister Turlough O'Donnell did some good mediation between the postmasters and An Post three or four years ago. That consultation set out a good path towards trying to protect and revive as many post officers as possible. I believe we need to follow that course. There are range of options. I am familiar with the Sparkasse banking model and have met representatives of the German banking industry who espouse the model on numerous occasions. I believe it is a key option and opportunity. The attractive thing about the model is that it specialises in lending to SMEs and small businesses in sectors such as farming. That is where that model does well in Germany. The key characteristic that I like in the model is that the funds raised as deposits in an area are spent or lent in that area. It involves real banking expertise and I would love to see that model here.

My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, and I are consulting Deputies, civil servants and Government colleagues from the area on the issue of Shannon Airport. An unfortunate series of events meant that the person we had in mind for the chairmanship had to step back. I regret that. We did not want to make an immediate decision after that but it is important that we get a chairperson in place. The Minister of State and I, working together, hope to be able to progress that matter in the coming weeks. We decided that it was best to listen to advice from various Deputies and Senators in these Houses rather than charging ahead and making an immediate appointment.

I am conscious of time and I apologise if I am not covering all of the issues about which I was asked. The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, and I met approximately 16 representatives of the aviation industry last Friday and had a good, two-hour meeting. The sector is in real crisis across the world but the concerns are particularly significant here because, as an island nation, we are exposed. The key thing the industry wants is to get back flying. We must be careful in that regard by following health advice and ensuring that we protect our country. However, if get the vaccine roll-out right, if it works as we hope and we get the numbers of infections right down, that will be the key to getting the aviation sector back. First and foremost, we must address the public health crisis.