Mr. Pádraig Ó Céidigh:

I appreciate the Deputy's contribution. I will try to address all of her questions but if I miss any, I ask her to let me know. Some of the questions I have already answered to the best of my ability, to be honest, particularly with regard to the heritage sites. There is nothing I can add in that regard.

In terms of my negotiations with stakeholders, I have not had any because I am not chairman yet. Indeed, I am not even a member of the board yet so I do not have any authority. I hope to do that pretty soon but I cannot comment on it now.

On the question of adding a hangar, I do not know the answer at this stage because I am not involved. I know that since 2014 Shannon Airport has invested €135 million in various developments across the campus, which is very significant. The campus has been successful from a financial point of view, as was mentioned by Senator Dooley earlier. That leads me to the very important question that Deputy Wynne asked about the reintegration of Shannon Airport into the Dublin Airport Authority, DAA. I cannot speak negatively or positively about that at this stage. All I can say is that back in 2010 to 2014, some of the Deputy's colleagues in these Houses were very keen that Shannon Airport be stand-alone. They felt that Shannon was not getting a fair crack of the whip because it was being treated as the junior partner vis-à-visthe airports in Ireland. That was the very strong feeling on the ground at the time, as I understand it. Deputy Wynne would probably know more about it than me. I understand many stakeholders were involved in negotiations and discussions at that time.

I would think it is better at this stage to view this as a transition process. As the Deputy has rightly pointed out, Covid 19 has absolutely devastated the aviation industry and even more so in places like Shannon Airport as opposed to Dublin Airport. The latter will come back much faster, naturally. I would prefer to hold our thinking on the question of the airport authority for the moment. We must give Shannon Airport the opportunity to breathe again and to have life put back into it, which I am convinced will happen. I sense that there is a very good management team in place and very committed staff there, with whom I am very privileged to work. My sense is that there is a good board there too. I do not know the people on the board but I sense it is more than just a job for them. I would prefer to put that on ice for the moment and see how we get on with the Shannon Group as it is. Sometimes one is better off being smaller and fighting for one's place. We have slightly different objectives to places like Dublin Airport.

The Deputy and others mentioned regionality. Shannon Airport is absolutely core to the region. If one has that really good focus, it gives one a better opportunity to achieve one's objectives rather than being part of a much bigger picture. Having said that, I would not rule it out.

The Deputy mentioned rail lines and ambition-----