Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Dublin will still grow but the others need to grow faster. That is what the national planning framework says. It is not that it is going to do down Dublin. If everything is in Dublin, that is not good for Dublin because we will not be able to cope. It is in Dublin's interests that Limerick thrives. Shannon is very much connected to Limerick and has to be seen as part of the Limerick metropolitan area. The centre of Limerick, particularly, has to thrive.

Deputy Catherine Murphy asked earlier about what we talk about at meetings. One of the things we were discussing in the past week is whether we could do exactly as the Deputy suggests. Could we not just divert flights down? To be honest, it has great complexities and difficulties and it would not work. We would have people coming in to the country who may be going to Dublin and have already booked a flight. If we just switch the flight we will cause significant disruption and difficulty in that regard. In looking at this over the last week after the difficulties we had last Sunday, there was not that easy solution. Some other airports have done it in the UK and in Frankfurt as I recall. It tends to be done on a voluntary basis from the airlines if they see they can do it in a way that does not disrupt passengers. We cannot do it unilaterally. It is difficult enough having to queue but if people are told they are arriving somewhere they did not expect to go to, that would present difficulties. It is not an immediate solution but the longer-term solution is to look for better balanced regional development, I agree.

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