Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail)

-----and we have a number of members on the board. We in the mid-west region need to retain the landing slots. In 2007 my part of the country went into a convulsion because we lost the Shannon to Heathrow route. The Minister's party colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, stated at the time:

We have had enough of the flowery sympathetic speeches. We want the Government to use its clout on the Board of the Company and insist that the Shannon-Heathrow route is maintained.

I echo those sentiments. The Minister of State, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, is now in government and I want to hold her, her party and the Fine Gael Party to their word. We need to maintain the Heathrow route for connectivity in the mid-west.

See this speech in context