Niall Collins (Limerick West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the debate on this important Bill, which is so relevant to the mid-west region. Shannon Airport, as we know, is of considerable strategic importance to the mid-west region, particularly in terms of jobs and tourism both inward and outward.

Many of our discussions and debates about Shannon Airport hinge on Aer Lingus, but it is important to mention that Ryanair has made a significant contribution to the revolution on low-cost travel and the opening up of the mid-west region by allowing Irish people to travel to destinations across Europe and further afield and by bringing inward tourism from these areas. We also need to acknowledge that it was Government policy applied consistently over the years that created and developed Shannon Airport and the wider Shannon region as a viable industrial area, and acknowledge the imaginative thinking that allowed the creation of the Shannon Free Zone and the reduced rates of corporation tax which helped attract foreign direct investment to the region.

With regard to the issue of the €10 travel tax, we should not allow Shannon Airport to become a political football again. Nobody — whether a bed and breakfast proprietor, a hotelier, a tourism promoter or an ordinary member of the public — has contacted me as a public representative and legislator, to lodge a complaint about the travel tax. Our friends opposite have made a number of points in this regard, but I do not believe the decision a person takes to travel or not depends on a €10 travel tax.

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