Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My final question is for Mr. Fitzpatrick. I hope he will forgive me for going a little off topic. Mr. Fitzpatrick is from the National Space Centre and he is most welcome. As I understand it, Ireland has been affiliated with the European Space Agency, ESA, since 1975. We embraced it early on. At that stage, we probably did not have much of a notion, as a country, as to where we were going in terms of space exploration. Since 2019, we have had a national space strategy. We play our role in Europe and contribute to it. I thank Mr. Fitzpatrick for what he is doing. He and is colleagues are lone wolves. They are at the table for Ireland and yet there are some giants in terms of space exploration. Another mission was undertaken last month. Not everything in space is about putting people on the moon or satellites. There is a huge amount being done. Mr. Fitzpatrick has told us loud and clear about the benefit of satellites and how they are benefiting people in rural Ireland day in, day out.

At the moment, the European space infrastructure is concentrated in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain and French Guyana. A someone who is involved with the ESA and attends its meetings, what are Mr. Fitzpatrick's thoughts on Ireland having a role in terms of space infrastructure on the ground? In particular, I want to put the proposal to him of using the runway at Shannon Airport, which, at 3.2 km, is one of the longest in Europe. It has a favourable orientation. There are 6,500 km of ocean between Ireland and the US. There are deepwater channel ports along the Shannon Estuary. Space exploration is not for Ireland alone to pursue, because it is a colossal thing, but there are many reasons, at a European level, we should be nudging and putting forward a suggestion of Shannon or, indeed, somewhere else in Ireland, being used time and again. Space missions are launched from Cape Canaveral and, increasingly, Russia. Europe is trying to join the space race, which is continuing. Ireland can play a major role in that regard. There is significant hangarage in Shannon, which has capacity beyond being an airport. I ask Mr. Fitzpatrick for this thoughts on that.