Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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My final question is fairly substantial. When did someone within the Department first discover that in the context of the deal done with Norwegian Airlines to fly into Ireland, which is being announced as we speak and which is welcome in a broad sense, the majority of the flights would be in and out of Dublin? This has been going on for 15 months. There was a good announcement for Cork today but the fact is that it was hung off the concept that the flights would be in and out of Cork. In fact, for 15 months, all we heard about was Cork. I understand that what has been announced today is that there will be 12 flights for Dublin, six flights for Belfast, four flights for Shannon and three flights for Cork. As far as I am concerned, this is a Trojan horse. I welcome the fact that they are coming into this country and the fact that we will have our first ever transatlantic flights out of Cork as opposed to the other airports. There are no flights for Knock which supported this, which raises other questions. When did the Department first know that there would be flights out of Dublin?