Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I compliment Deputy Michael McNamara on putting together this motion. It is important for the region in question. I live outside Tuam, within 55 minutes of Ireland West Airport Knock and 45 minutes of Shannon Airport. Connectivity is, therefore, important to me. If Galway East, including Tuam, is to develop, we need to have proper connectivity with the outside world.

Back in 2007 and 2008, there was a crisis in Shannon Airport because Aer Lingus was proposing to transfer the Heathrow Airport routes to other airports. At the time, the cathaoirligh of Galway County Council and other councils along the western seaboard met to mount a campaign to retain the Heathrow hub in Shannon. It was successful. Today, the airports face a major problem again. Shannon and Knock airports, which are in my area, and Kerry and Donegal airports, all of which are in the Atlantic corridor region, are under severe pressure.

I welcome the fact that funding was announced yesterday. I believe it was probably on foot of the motion tabled by Deputy McNamara and ourselves. It is important to acknowledge that funding is coming but we need to consider the broader issues pertaining to regional development. We now have an opportunity in the west to prepare a plan to ensure procedures are in place to develop. It is important that immediate action be taken on the airports. Short-term measures include help to meet the regulatory requirements that must be met if the airports are to remain open. We need State support to facilitate pilots in keeping their licences up to date. We need to re-engage the aviation recovery task force to create concrete proposals on an all-Ireland aviation policy emphasising regionality. The task force could consider similar successful strategies in other jurisdictions.

We need to build on the Atlantic economic corridor task force, whose purpose is to create a strategy and make recommendations to the Government on maximising the potential of the region. This task force would include industry experts in addition to Department experts and would be given three months in which to submit its report to the Government. We should develop a traffic light system for countries outside the EU, for example, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA, to provide clarity to our diaspora on travelling home for Christmas.

Looking to the medium term, it is important that we consider policy on air access. It should be linked to, and consistent with, tourism and enterprise policy objectives, especially those concerning Fáilte Ireland. We need a more integrated network to determine how we can leverage growth across the entire nation. We need to investigate and actively support growth opportunities in the regional airports in respect of aviation-related business such as aircraft maintenance, logistics, freight handling and storage, pilot and aviation-related training, and aviation leasing. With our third level institutions across the region, we have an opportunity to put in place programmes to train people for the aviation industry.

Having examined the Atlantic economic corridor, which stretches from Donegal to Kerry and includes 12 counties, I believe there is an opportunity for us to develop a strategy for our airports, ports and rail network right across the region. Across the world, we see airports at which we can hop straight onto a train and go directly to the city, town or region. Ireland West Airport Knock and Shannon Airport need a connection to the western rail corridor. This is how we have to plan for the future and for the green economy, which involves taking people out of cars and putting them onto public transport. It is great to talk about it but we need to put the infrastructure in place. The two airports I have referred to are key components in the delivery of regional development.

When we talk about regional airports, it is important that we regard them as a gateways to the regions for tourists such that they will not all have to come through Dublin Airport and from there meander by bus around the country or parts of it. It is important that we teach people who are selling Ireland that tourists can land in Shannon Airport, Cork Airport or Ireland West Airport Knock, with Donegal and Kerry airports providing back-up. It is important that we do this in a way that looks towards the future rather than today or tomorrow. We must plan and have a vision for the next 25, 30 or 40 years.

We all talk about regional development. While there is a major crisis in the airports, we should grasp the nettle and solve this problem now. If we do, by making the airports the centres of our business and the hubs from which we fan out, and if we connect to the urban centres of Galway, Sligo, Limerick, Cork and Athlone, we will create a network whereby tourists and businesspeople can all access the regions.

An article in one of the newspapers today refers to the number of people working remotely now and how many are seeking to move to the regions. This trend presents an opportunity for us to make sure that when the people come, they will have the broadband, road and rail networks and connectivity they require. By doing this, we will attract the best of people and we will be able to set up industries at the cutting edge of technology in the region.

The Minister knows well that we also have an opportunity to create a major offshore wind energy business. We need to build this into our strategy on the Atlantic economic corridor. We should set out the Atlantic economic corridor as a strategic region and ensure it gets preferential treatment so that it will benefit from the regional development it requires.

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