James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)

I have a supplementary question about our connectivity in general, including the TEN-T routes, etc. There are two things I want to ask. The first is about the runway length at Cork Airport. Cork has a number of the top ten pharmaceutical companies. It has Apple and a very strong university input into the city through Munster Technological University, University College Cork and a number of other smaller higher education outfits. From a transatlantic point of view, Cork and the region around it have two options: you go to Shannon or Dublin. They are two very long journeys for people from Cork. One of the issues in Cork Airport is the length of its runway. It cannot handle aircraft that can do transatlantic travel coming in and out. The DAA is very watery on this. It says that there are certain aircraft that are capable but need to have a reduced load factor on them. I want to get the view of Chambers Ireland whether that is possible. It is something that Cork Chamber has raised. Has it any particular view on potentially extending the recently refurbished runway in Cork?