Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I very much share the Deputy's vision and aspiration for what we can do in Shannon into the future. The zone around the airport has been an enormous success in the past couple of years. There has been a huge increase in employment, and the quality of employment, there as well. For the airport itself, it is always a bit more of a struggle but we all want to see passengers numbers increase. I was pleased to engage with Deputy Carey, as head of the airport group, and to see also that the flights to Paris have resumed, which is really positive news as well.

Luxembourg is a little different. One should bear in mind that if a plane lands with a cargo in Luxembourg, it can be transshipped by road or rail to almost anywhere in Europe. That is not the case for Ireland. If something lands in Dublin or Shannon and is taken off the plane, it has to be put back on a ship to get to Europe. It is a different proposition in Luxembourg. However, when it comes to air transshipment, there is a great deal of potential in Shannon going from one plane to another. There is a great deal of space there as well and very few objections to development, which is really important too. We have had some discussions and conversations with particular companies involved in this space. I cannot get into the detail of them here. I might be able to talk to the Deputy off-line. We are pursuing a number of opportunities.

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