Mr. Joe Gilmore:

Similar to other airports, we have to go to the airlines with a comprehensive package of information on the regional offering. We get good support from the councils, our regional chambers, particularly in Sligo and Galway, Fáilte Ireland, Tourism Ireland and so forth. We are in a good space. However, we are facing significant cost-competitive challenges with car hire and accommodation, given the current situation in the country. From a west coast perspective in particular, there are going to be significant challenges on that side as we face into the rest of 2023 and 2024.

The Deputy mentioned the new route development scheme. There is a body of work that needs to be commissioned there. We have raised potential areas that we think could be explored. However, we need to look at other peripheral regions across Europe, including the types of schemes that have been in place and are permitted under EU state aid support guidelines and so forth. I propose and recommend that a body of research be done to get up to date information on what would be permissible and what could be put in place to support connectivity into peripheral Europe, in particular, the west of Ireland.