Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for being here today and welcome the opportunity to speak. I listened to a lot of the speakers. We are an island that is deeply dependent on air and sea travel, but supporting the aviation sector during the pandemic was vital. I agree that the TWSS should go forward. I was very surprised by the number of pilots who live in my area, and heard their stories and the hardship they have gone through. Given that I am from Cork, I might as well mention Cork Airport. Dublin seems to be getting practically everything at the moment. We have to regionalise and spread the influx of visitors throughout the country.

We also need connectivity between airports and the main cities and towns. There has to be a joined-up approach. We have the best people in the world. We probably have the best country in the world. We have the best scenery in the world. Why can we not promote it? We need to invest in it. That is the important thing.

Greenways were mentioned. They have been a fabulous initiative and I will always give credit where credit is due. There is a lot of excitement in my area about the greenway from Midleton to Cork, even though people would have preferred a railway line along the route. That was not a go at the time. That is another issue in terms of connectivity.

I would also like to mention the chambers of commerce in our cities and the work they do. We must remember that. We have to give credit to all of the other people who lost jobs, some on a permanent and others on a temporary basis, whether that was in shops, catering and other businesses due to the knock-on effect of the airport. Thankfully, some of the ports remained open but not at the same capacity as previously.

I appeal to the Minister and Government to keep the supports going. Let us try to open up our country safely. As I said, this is a no-brainer. We have the best country in the world. We need proper connectivity and an organisation that can sell our soul out there. If we get that right, the influx of money into the country will pay for itself fourfold. I wish the Minister well in that. I hope she will listen to the people and those who lobbied her on the budget. It is to be hoped that by next summer, we can say that we got this right.

See this speech in context