Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their contributions. I am particularly interested in Knock Airport. I am also interested in the collaboration between the airports so that we always have a regional choice, because sometimes in winter there is a substantial drop in routes available.

I thank Mr. Gilmore for laying all of this out and there are things we definitely support and have been mentioned. Extending the regional airports programme beyond 24 months makes absolute sense. Nobody in the room who would disagree with that and we have to ensure it happens. On extending the threshold to 3 million passengers from 1 million, this may be been answered in the previous question, but perhaps it could be explained why 3 million and not 2 million or 4 million. Where does that come from?

I am especially interested in the cap at 75%, the implications that has in terms of finding the 25% and within whose gift it is to address that so that the 25% gap on capital projects is not there. Is there flexibility from the EU around that? I know at different times there have been different opportunities for flexibility, but what do we need to do to make sure that is not there? If it continues, what is the opportunity cost of that? What are we not getting because that cap is there? Obviously. the multi-year investment programme has to be there, not just from a bureaucratic point of view but because it is impossible to plan if it is 12 months. You are almost certain but not quite certain, so that type of planning does not make sense at all.

Will someone explain the new route development scheme a bit more? I am delighted to see Knock airport connected with Heathrow Airport. That will be a huge success for all kinds of reasons and I look forward to using it. When we speak about the financial support to de-risk from years 1 to 3, what are the possibilities there? Have any preliminary discussions taken place with airlines, even in a domestic setting? I often wonder why there is not a flight from Knock to Belfast to connect the North and South. It is 25 years after the Good Friday Agreement. Perhaps someone could speak to that on the North-South collaboration.

As far as I am aware it is just Shannon that has the machines that can do security screening.