Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----very high-value pharmaceuticals and some medical devices and so on would be of extremely high value. Aviation is so necessary for such a small open economy, such as the one we have, that is so dependent on exports and producing certain things for the world that we are very good at producing. Equally, however, people need to appreciate that we do not have the rail network, such as they have in the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, France or Germany. We did not traditionally have the densities of population to justify it either. We are still an island and we do not have a bridge or tunnel to anywhere else, so aviation is very important.

I also support the point Michael O'Leary put forward about the whole area of emissions trading. Of course, we want to be looking at everybody, but the fact is a passenger on a long-haul plane transiting through Schiphol Airport and going somewhere else afterwards is charged almost nothing while, at the same time, ordinary Irish families flying economy class to Faro, Malaga or the Canary Islands for their summer holidays once a year face a far higher charge. We need to keep banging that drum. I know the Minister of State is doing so, but we as a nation need to remind people that it is all very well for Europe to be playing its part, as it should, but the rest of the world should be playing its part too. It ends up that those on long-haul flights are paying less than those on short-haul flights in many cases. If you go intra-EU, you will be paying it, but if you are flying to Morocco, Tunisia or somewhere, you will not be paying it.