Conor McGuinness (Waterford, Sinn Fein)

With respect to the Minister of State, the line about engaging with stakeholders is wearing fairly thin at this stage. We have heard it over the years. Everything that needs to be done in Waterford has been done by the local authorities and by the airport. Planning is in place, the regional funding is there and the project is ready to go. What is missing here is the decision by the Minister for Transport that just needs to be made. This prevarication and dancing around the issue is no longer good enough. It is time just to make that call and let us know.

In his response the Minister of State mentioned that the costs have gone up. They have gone up precisely because the Government has dithered and done nothing. Inflation has made this project a lot more expensive in the time we have wasted when the Government would not make a call on this and when they backtracked and tried to backtrack and renege on their earlier decision.

There is the catch-22 whereby the Government is pushing Waterford Airport by saying we do not have scheduled services so we cannot get funding and they are not going to support us. We do not have scheduled services because we do not have the runway extension. It is time now to fund the runway extension at Waterford Airport. Not next year, not next week, but now.

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