Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister. That is good to hear. The reason I mentioned Amsterdam is that it is a hub airport. We have incredible sun routes and holiday routes out of all of Ireland's airports. Every airport wants hub connectivity in order that you can fly out in the morning to Amsterdam-Schiphol and after lunch you can be in the four corners of the world. It is the continental hub connectivity that everyone desires. The point I am making is that there are 12 flights per day from Dublin to Amsterdam-Schiphol and none from Shannon. Cork on and off has had a flight to there. Inserting the words "better" or "more regional balance" in the aviation policy I think would give the Minister some leverage to say to the Irish Aviation Authority, "Fine, keep judging that stack of applications for landing slots, but I want you every now and again to pull up airlines and say that putting 12 routes into that airport is not very regionally sustainable and suggest bringing one over to another region." I think that would be a-----