Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have three issues to raise with the Minister. The first concerns Cork Airport and the aviation sector generally, as also referred to by previous speakers. Cork Airport is responsible directly for some 2,200 jobs and indirectly for another 10,000. Those thousands of families are deeply worried at this time. Ryanair is threatening to pull its base in Cork, as is Aer Lingus. While I recognise that decisions were made in the interests of public health regarding international travel during the Covid crisis, which I support and agree were necessary, we need now to plan for the future. We know that aviation will not go back to normal today or tomorrow. We also know that Cork needs a viable international airport to enable it to grow in accordance with what is planned for the region under Project Ireland 2040. The airport is an essential strategic asset to the region. My priority in terms of Cork Airport is working with management and workers to seek solutions. We need direct investment in the airport and to have a high-quality testing regime in place for the aviation industry generally. I submitted parliamentary questions on these matters to the Minister in recent days and I hope I will get comprehensive answers to them. I am asking the Minister to do whatever he can to ensure these jobs are safeguarded and that Cork Airport has a viable future.

The second issue I want to raise relates to the Cork metropolitan area transport strategy. I was one of the first Cork Deputies in the last Dáil to push for the provision of a light rail service for the city, which I was glad to see included in the strategy. However, my fear is that there are many ambitious targets for the long term but not enough for the short and medium term. My understanding is that the proposed east-west line is too limited and that a north-south line is also needed. In the shorter term, there is scope to look at investing more substantially in our traditional bus service and to look towards Belfast's Glider service. A bus rapid transit service would be far quicker and easier to deliver than a light rail service. It would operate on the existing bus corridors and work on the project could begin quickly. It would be a new and eye-catching service, which would capture the imagination of the people of Cork.

Finally, I draw the Minister's attention to the L2455 road improvement scheme. He might wish to write that down. The delays to this local road project have been going on for some 15 years and the road itself represents the worst of Celtic tiger planning. There is a community of approximately 1,000 people living in housing estates in Cork city who are within the same distance of other suburbs as this Chamber is from Pearse Station but they cannot get out of their estates. There are no footpaths and it is not safe to cycle. It is absolutely incomprehensible that the communities in Lehenagh Beg and Lehenagh More have been left to deal with this situation. This road project, which is going out to public consultation soon, will be expensive to complete, but this community has been let down again and again. Some of that is the responsibility of Cork City Council. When the project lands on the Minister's desk, I ask that he provide the funding to allow it to proceed. It is important for the road safety of motorists but also, more crucially, of pedestrians and cyclists.

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