Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The whole aviation package is about the country. It not about individual airports but about facilitating travel and getting our capacity back up. The number of people travelling into Ireland is a fraction of what it was before the pandemic. The airports and airlines have sought a meaningful aviation package and Deputies from all sides of the House have asked us to do more for aviation. We have been criticised for not doing enough. This package was announced in the budget to support restoring capacity to airports and airlines and to make sure we can get people in.

As for why, it is to help the hospitality sector in terms of the tourism sector, so there are more tourists using the greenway in Dungarvan, for example, or other tourism sites in Waterford and across the south east. If we do not have the capacity to get people in, they will not be spending money across the length and breadth of the country.

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