Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Just before the Deputy came in, I made the point that I am carrying out our mid-term review of the regional airports programme to do just that. We have opened up consultation on how we can have more balanced regional development. That is about driving more traffic through our regional airports with a focus on the regions. I got some feedback from the Chair on the closing date. I am doing an issues paper first and I want people to feed into that. That issues paper will form part of the public consultation. I do not want just the airports feeding into this. I want to hear from the hospitality sector, companies, chambers of commerce and anyone who is interested in how we can redirect that traffic. During the Covid pandemic, we had funding for airports to enable them to deal directly with airlines. What Shannon Airport did to drive more traffic through shows its ability in this regard. That gives me great confidence. I was in Shannon Airport recently for the launch of the new service to Paris-Orly. It also has more transatlantic flights, including to Chicago. The airports are capable of doing this but through the regional airports programme and national aviation policy, we need to enable them to direct more traffic through.

The mid-term review of regional airports is happening. I want that focus on the regions for exactly the same reason as the Deputy outlined. Exponential growth is projected for Dublin Airport. We do not want what we saw during the summer, with the airport not able to manage the number of passengers going through, to happen again. Through this consultation process, I want to open up the discussion and to feed into the regional airports programme and what it will look like post the Covid pandemic. We need to look at how people are doing business and how they are travelling, which has been changing. If we had done this six months ago or 12 months ago, we would be preparing a completely different policy. In the context of this new vista, it is important and timely for us to progress that.