Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)

I thank the Minister and tentatively welcome his reply. I am from the west of Ireland, as is the Minister of State sitting beside the Minister, and Shannon Airport is critically important to us in the mid-west. It is not something I agree with, but we know that the Government is going to try to lift the passenger cap. It is a fact of life. We need to gain some additionality for regional airports. Will the Minister look at expanding the regional airports programme to allow access to airports such as Shannon Airport? It is a matter the CEO of the Shannon Airport Group, Ms Mary Considine, has raised and will raise again when she meets the Minister. We need to wean the country off Dublin Airport, although not in terms of the key point-to-point connectivity. At the moment, there are 16 flights per week from Dublin Airport to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. We could do with two flights per week from Shannon to Schiphol.

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