Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am eager to make this contribution today on the reopening of the tourism and aviation sectors, two essential industries in my constituency, Clare. They prop up and sustain other micro-economies in the county. I will have Shannon Airport at the core.

First and foremost, I want to talk about the future of Shannon Airport as we emerge from Covid-19. I propose, as I have done on many occasions, the reintegration of Shannon Airport into something similar to what the DAA was, to be known as the national airport authority. As we know, in 2008 Cork and Shannon had comparable footfall numbers of 3.2 million and seemed to be on an equal footing. Fast forward ten years and there is a massive difference of 1 million after separation. We now know with certainty that the separation did not work but failed drastically. The proof showed itself in the name of Covid-19. We in Sinn Féin, along with the trade unions, opposed separation. We vigorously opposed the privatisation of Aer Lingus in 2015 by Fine Gael and Labour. We said at the time that it would cost jobs in the long run. Lo and behold, we were right. The fallout in Shannon Airport above other Irish airports exposes that fact.

One of my constituents who works for Aer Lingus was relocated involuntarily to Dublin in 2016 and is still expected to commute to Dublin more than once a week while subsisting on 60% of the usual income. Constituents are being pushed to the limit and are not alone in terms of how far they are being stretched. Shannon Airport brought in €3.6 billion to GDP annually pre-Covid and directly and indirectly bolsters roughly 46,000 jobs in the mid-west. We should aim for 2006 levels of footfall when, at its peak, the airport had footfall of 3.7 million. That is what we would call building back better.

We need to get beyond the buzzwords of balanced regional development and implement a policy that is fresh and puts in place positive discrimination to offset the unequal development of bigger players when compared to regional airports. I had the pleasure of meeting the new Shannon Group chairperson today in the Committee on Transport and Communications. He stated he still does not have access to documents. I ask that this be rectified as soon as possible. He also said that he would not put down the idea of reintegration.

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