Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy O'Donnell for raising this matter. I apologise for the Minister for Transport and the Marine, Deputy Dempsey, who is unavoidably absent, due to a prior commitment. His absence does not indicate his lack of interest in this issue.

It is important to trace the background to the proposal to establish an economic and tourism development plan for Shannon. Following decisions taken by the European Court of Justice in 2002 in the so-called open skies cases, the European Council of Ministers granted a mandate to the European Commission for the negotiation of an open skies agreement with the US. Against the background of the Government's commitment to the liberalisation of air transport services between Ireland and the US, Ireland supported that mandate.

A number of reports, such as the Brattle report for the European Commission, the report of the tourism policy review group and the air transport users council of the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland, all supported moving to open skies with the US, as soon as possible.

EU negotiations with the US about a wide-ranging aviation agreement began in October 2003 and continued in 2004 and 2005. In November 2005, the EU and US negotiators reached agreement on the text of a comprehensive first-step air transport agreement. A transitional arrangement for Ireland, relating to the phasing out of the Shannon stopover, was included in the November 2005 text but remained in abeyance, pending finalisation of the negotiations.

Following certain difficulties on the US side last year, which meant the agreement could not be concluded, negotiations at EU-US level resumed in January 2007. Over the course of a further two negotiating rounds in February and March a series of modifications to the text were agreed by the negotiators. The final agreement was endorsed by the Transport Council on 22 March 2007 and signed by the US and the European Commission at the EU-US summit on 30 April 2007. The agreement as a whole is to enter into force on a provisional basis from 30 March 2008.

The original transitional measures agreed in November 2005 relating to the granting of additional traffic rights to three US destinations, as well as measures to phase out the Shannon stopover, entered into effect immediately following approval of the draft agreement by the Council of Ministers in March 2007. This means the Shannon stop requirement will not be fully terminated until March 2008. Aer Lingus has already announced it will commence new services to three new US destinations in the autumn namely to San Francisco, Orlando and Washington Dulles.

With a view to assisting Shannon Airport and the wider Shannon region to adapt to the new arrangements under the open skies regime, the former Minister for Transport gave an undertaking to prepare an economic and tourism development plan for the region to ensure Shannon Airport sustains and grows transatlantic air services.

Also in the context of the 2005 draft open skies agreement, the then Minister for Transport sought and obtained assurances from Aer Lingus that the airline will maintain the current level of transatlantic traffic of approximately 400,000 seats a year with regular year round scheduled services between Shannon and Boston and New York.

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