Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. This is important. Some two weeks ago, 13 members of staff were summoned to a meeting in an airport hotel and told the office would be closed and all of the staff moved in June, which is the start of the summer season in an airport which, as we know from our previous discussion, needs an extra runway to accommodate the volume of passengers passing through its doors. It seems bizarre that no tourist office is to be located there.

It feeds in to a question from Deputy Naughton to which the Minister of State responded. A Dublin-centric organisation is being developed around Fáilte Ireland, which is inherently dangerous. I ask the Minister of State to put it to Fáilte Ireland that its facilities at Dublin Airport were given to it for free by the DAA. It was such a vital linchpin in smoothing the passage of passengers through the airport and made their welcome in Ireland very much céad míle fáilte that the DAA did not charge it for the facilities. It is something well worth retaining and I stress that the Minister of State needs to raise those points in the context of the holistic development of tourism on the entire island of Ireland, not just Dublin.

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