Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

I appreciate the opportunity of discussing the implications of this regulation. A Council regulation is binding, while a directive may require domestic legislation. Regulation 95/93 has been amended some 40 times and the consolidated version is that of 2002. It lays down the fundamental principles of the management of slots in airports and aviation policy.

It opens by stating that the objective of the regulation is to give a proper answer to the "growing imbalance between the expansion of the air transport system in Europe and the availability of adequate airport infrastructure to meet that demand". While the directive and its amendments deal with co-ordinated airports Shannon is not a co-ordinated airport and Dublin briefly was. The regulation lays down fundamental principles upon which aviation policy in the EU was to be based: "The use of flexibility is limited, it cannot be used for slots related to routes considered vital for economic development of the region where the airport is located, nor disturb airport operations, when another carrier with less frequencies has not been able to obtain landing and departure slots within two hours before or after." Therefore it accepted that where a particular slot was vital "for the economic development of the region where the airport is located" that had to be borne in mind.

This brings me to the nub of the matter — compliance with the regulation was a Government responsibility. The original allocation of slots was a matter that had been discussed intergovernmentally. Therefore, on that fundamental principle, BMI could not, for example, move its slots to Shannon without reference to a co-ordinator or the co-ordinating committee.

On the other hand, the Irish Government, while under an obligation of compliance, decided to leave it to the board to comply even though the Government had not appointed members to the board. In turn, the board delegated a decision of this magnitude to what was regarded as an operational decision by the executive. This is absurd.

One of the reasons I raise this was to seek to resolve this issue. It could be resolved but we are not helped in Galway, the west or the mid-west by the bilious comments of the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Ó Cuív. In his lecture in Bunratty yesterday he stated:

While you must recognise the challenges and deficiencies in your region, never sell your region short. By always highlighting the difficulties and never the advantages, a great disservice is done to a region.

How dare he say this. Those of us asking for fair treatment of Shannon are asking only for equality. He goes on to give his Joyce country céilí band speech: "In my experience, in the Joyce country where I live, the vital turning point came when the people's attitude towards their area changed from one of despair and negativity to one of positive thinking and pride." I have no problem if he regards himself as John the Baptist in the mountains but I object to his distortion of a genuine campaign. I condemn his ignorance of regional planning. No integrated regional planning has come about as a residue of open market thinking. It has required equality of infrastructure.

The Minister, like me, represents Galway West. He is happy that not one cent from the national development plan, under Transport 21, will be spent on an integrated transport service at Ceannt Station. More than ten acres of a 14.5 acre site will be sold to raise money for minor adjustments in Galway city. Instead of co-operating with us to see how we can make progress he gives these "up the airy mountain, down the rushy glen" speeches around the country. He claims we are talking ourselves down. We seek equality of treatment and when we speak of connectivity, it is not to highlight difficulty in the region but to refer to the capacity of the region. I have no objection to how he wishes to describe himself but he is being grossly unfair to the alliance and the workers.

My reason for this debate was to see how the Government is complying with a Council regulation, by which it is legally bound.

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