Jim Higgins (Fine Gael)

The sale of Aer Lingus will undoubtedly cause concern. Ryanair, Mr. O'Leary's operation, does not have transatlantic flights. Ryanair cherry-picks the profitable lines and makes a good job of it, with profit as its motive. We do not begrudge the company its success. Regarding the transatlantic routes, it is crucial, as Senator Wilson said, that we have an airline which can guarantee direct access to Ireland rather than offer flights via Heathrow or Paris with connecting flights to Ireland. That is one of the reasons I have some qualms about the sell-off of the airline.

We must give credit to Mr. Willie Walsh, the management, pilots, cabin crews, ground staff and handlers. Everyone tightened their belts. I recall that when the crisis arose, I was taken to Liberty Hall to be confronted with people who were absolutely frantic regarding the future of the airline. In the space of two or three years, Mr. Walsh has taken the airline by the scruff of the neck. It is leaner, tighter, more effective and more efficient, and overall it is giving a better service.

I will address the Shannon issue. It came as a bombshell last week when, on top of the redundancies already announced in Shannon, we learned that some 30 to 40 cargo and maintenance staff faced job losses. We have already had a cabin crew reduction at Shannon. Of the 45 staff let go, 29 who are rooted in the mid-west with families are now being asked to move to Dublin. This is decentralisation in reverse. We saw the announcement in the newspapers last Saturday that another 102 Aer Lingus staff are to go. Aer Lingus and Shannon have been synonymous long before Aer Lingus and Dublin became synonymous. Particularly with regard to the transatlantic routes, Aer Lingus and Shannon were inextricably entwined. The Minister for Transport, Deputy Brennan, now seems to be downsizing the operation at Shannon. The consequences for the mid-west are obviously catastrophic. The Minister wrongly said that tourists who come through Dublin all go to the west and the mid-west; they do not. Some do, but when one has a guaranteed direct transatlantic route into Shannon, tourists will at least start in the mid-west, perhaps go to Killarney, possibly up as far as Galway, hopefully as far as Mayo, and at least tour along the west coast. If everything is to be channelled through Dublin, we will get only a dribble of tourists in the west and mid-west regions.

For two reasons, we need a clear and decisive policy on the survival of Shannon. First, Shannon has served this country well. Second, an IBEC report was published this afternoon which was devastating regarding the neglect of the mid-west region. It showed that of the 102 industries in the region, very few had grown and not a single additional job had been created there in the past ten years. That is obviously a dire situation and if one removes from the equation one of the main arteries of development in the mid-west region, namely Shannon, with its potential growth, the job consequences will be considerably worse. Instead of Shannon being downsized, Aer Lingus should be working in co-operation with all the commercial and tourist interests in the region in an effort to grow Shannon so that it can realise its potential as a hub of major development.

Last night, in response to a debate in the other House, where this matter was addressed by Deputy Pat Breen and Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, the Minister of State, Deputy McDaid, did not give much grounds for optimism regarding Shannon's position, or where it is going.