Michael Harty (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The ability of Shannon Airport to increase its passenger numbers and be a successful airport is a related issue. There needs to be a policy change to support the connectivity and the traffic numbers coming through Shannon Airport. In the last five years, 95% of all passenger growth has been in Dublin Airport. Project Ireland 2040 sets out a vision for attracting jobs to the regions and ensuring economic growth is distributed fairly. IDA Ireland has regional targets for foreign direct investment. I think Tourism Ireland should also have regional targets to ensure there is a fair distribution of visitors to Ireland through airports other than Dublin Airport, including Shannon Airport. In 2016, some €12.6 million was invested in marketing Ireland. Approximately 95% of growth has occurred in the Dublin region, which gets 87% of the incoming traffic. It would appear that the vast majority of the money is being spent in the Dublin region and not in the other regions. I think there should be an examination of how the money being invested in marketing is dispersed across the other airports. In my view, Shannon Airport is not getting a fair proportion of that funding. I have two questions for the Minister. How much money has been spent on marketing airports outside Dublin? Will the Minister implement policies to attract more traffic to our regional airports in order to reverse the total dominance of Dublin Airport?

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