Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am being flexible. That is why I did not shut you up 20 minutes ago. I want to bring Ms Considine back in to conclude on the remarks made before I brought in Deputy Lowry. You have all done an excellent job advocating for your own airports and your own regions, in pointing out the necessity of and how valuable airports are to the regions they serve and how much activity, innovation and ingenuity they bring. I have sung the praises of Shannon before, when we had the Shannon Airport Group and the chairpersons in, as I have with Cork and all the airports. Airports drive economic activity, tourism and people visiting friends and relatives. Equally, looking at the route maps, you see with our new, increased population - 50% up in 25 years - all the routes you have to places like Poland. When Monsignor Horan was building the runway back in 1986, I do not think he would have thought he would have had so many routes going to Poland or other parts of eastern Europe. It is a reflection of how our society and economy is changing, and you are all doing a great job. We asked at one stage what was the one thing each wanted to do if they could do one thing each, and a lot of it was around the regional aid programme and the artificial €1 million limit that we had kind of applied, versus the EU actual limit of €3 million, which itself might need to be looked at. I want to bring Ms Considine back in, or if anyone has a brief point to conclude on-----