Ms Mary Considine:

I will deal with Deputy Crowe's points first. The Copenhagen Economics report was commissioned by the joint chambers of commerce, led by Limerick Chamber. I am unsure as to whether they plan to update the work. Within the Shannon Airport Group, we are looking at revising our economic assessment. We are carrying out an economic impact assessment of the value of the activities we undertake. That would be useful in the context of updating the policy.

I am not the expert on ammonia, but we would view our role as enabling.

We know there is a requirement to decarbonise aviation. We are in a prime spot, located on the Shannon Estuary, a deep water port. There are the airport, the deep water port in Foynes and abundant offshore wind in the Atlantic. Moneypoint is already preparing and working on the plans to transition and take this offshore wind. It is about putting the planning and consenting process in place to ensure we can attract the investment, bring that offshore wind onshore and derive the added-value industries from that. One by-product from that is hydrogen, which can be used in the production of SAF. That is where we see a huge opportunity for aviation and for Ireland Inc. Deputy Carey is absolutely correct in that ammonia and hydrogen will be the ways to store the offshore wind. There are significant opportunities for Ireland in this space.

I thank him for all his support. We fully agree the threshold should be increased to 3 million passengers, in line with EU state aid rules. Our request of the committee is that it support us in our ask to have the threshold increased. As it stands, we will fall out of it, and it will require a change in policy to increase the threshold and ensure all airports with under 3 million passengers are included. That will require a change to the regional airports programme and to aviation policy, so the committee's support on that would be most welcome. I thank the committee for all the support it has given us through the very difficult period of the pandemic. The Government's supports were a lifeline to us in this industry, getting us through a very difficult period.

On our vision for Shannon, we are very optimistic about the future. We see great potential. We are ideally located to expand our catchment area significantly. We see with improving road networks and public transport the opportunity to have a rail link into the airport. We are making an investment in growing the cluster of aviation companies in Shannon. We are also investing in our property portfolio, which is a key enabler in attracting more FDI into the region, allowing the companies that are already there to expand and allowing indigenous businesses to grow. We see ourselves as a key international gateway to the Wild Atlantic Way. The year-round US connectivity, and the fact we have customs and border protection, preclearance for not only scheduled traffic but also general aviation, are a unique selling point for Shannon. We actively promote that and see significant opportunity. We have only to look to 2027 and the Ryder Cup coming to Ireland. That will be a considerable opportunity to create a lasting legacy not only for our region but for the entire country, and we foresee ourselves as playing a crucial role in that. We are very excited about the future. We are a bit hesitant to put figures on projections because we are focused on having those key routes to the key hubs and the key tourism destinations that support business and tourism in the west and beyond.