Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I listened to the Minister's opening statement which was absolutely tone deaf. He did not mention Dublin Airport in his opening statement and I had to ask myself if he is actually for real. It is absolutely incredible. His Cabinet colleagues must be cringing. The issues affecting Dublin Airport over the last number of weeks have been well documented. On Sunday 1,000 people missed their flights due to delays at the airport. I worked in the travel industry for 19 years and I find that absolutely unbelievable. It is unimaginable that 1,000 people went to the national airport but could not get through and missed their flights. The Dublin Airport Authority, DAA, had the audacity on Sunday to tweet advice to passengers to contact their airline. Who can get through to an airline on a Sunday? I do not know what the authority expected people to do.

This was predicted, however, and all of this has its roots in the laying off of 1,000 workers by the DAA during the pandemic and the subsequent lack of workforce planning as international travel reopened. At the time of these lay offs, Mr. Jerry Brennan of SIPTU told the DAA that it would need to rehire people because the queues would be extending through the car parks and unfortunately, never have truer words been spoken. This is incredibly frustrating and disappointing for those people who missed their flights but it has also become an embarrassment for the State. People have had to queue outside the terminal for over three hours and we have had little response from the Minister in charge. It is absolutely unbelievable that he did not mention Dublin Airport in his opening statement today. I cannot believe it. I thought I would come down and read the statement in case I missed it. There is no actual statement available which suggests the Minister was ad-libbing. If he was ad-libbing he could have at least mentioned Dublin Airport.

Adjacent to my own constituency is Shannon Airport. The types of issues affecting Dublin Airport have not been repeated in airports such as Shannon and Cork. Obviously, there is a lot less traffic at these airports. Shannon Airport is at the heart of the economy of the mid-west but for a long time it has been under-resourced and under-appreciated. The Shannon Group was over 12 months without a chairperson under the Minister's watch, at the height of the pandemic. Government supports for the workers at the airport were delivered at a snail's pace, ultimately leading to job losses. Surely following the calamity at Dublin Airport, the Minister will recognise the importance of increasing traffic through the regional airports. Prior to the pandemic almost 90% of flights departed from Dublin Airport. In debates on aviation during the pandemic there was much talk of planning for the future of aviation but the issues at Dublin Airport indicate that these plans were not developed. Shannon Airport accounts for 15,000 direct and 45,000 indirect jobs in the mid-west region. There is potential to grow and develop the airport but this must begin with an increase in flight options from the region. I would like to hear some details from the Minister on how he intends to alleviate pressure on Dublin by supporting Shannon Airport further.

Finally and briefly I want to mention a road in my constituency, the Coonagh to Knockalisheen road. The Green Party opposed it and forced it back down. The road is 35% completed but the company doing the work collapsed and went into receivership. We are now left with one third of the road built and we need to get it finished. Will the Minister intervene and make sure the contract is completed as fast as possible and that the people who build critical infrastructure are back doing just that?

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