Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

Will the Minister agree it is unusual for a Minister to break up one of the most successful semi-State companies under that Minister's control? Will she accept that the track record of Shannon Development is without parallel in the country, that it is the only statutory regional development engine, that it has achieved the industrialisation of the mid-west, which is second only to Dublin, and that its break up will have an enormous negative impact on regional development, particularly the development of that region?

Does she agree with the comments made by the managing director of Avocent, the computer firm, when he said the region needed a strong airport but also a strong regional development authority and that one should not be at the expense of the other? What coherent reason is there for breaking up Shannon Development?

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