Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister to the House and I support the Bill. I think Senator Quinn used the wrong metaphor. When one is buying or spending, one can talk about the blank cheque but when one is selling, the blank cheque metaphor does not make sense.

Air transport is of significant strategic importance to this country. Mr. Seán Lemass saw it as the most important innovation in his lifetime in reducing peripherality. I am personally very proud that the previous Government and our Leader introduced the employee share ownership plan, ESOP, mechanism for a 14.9% worker shareholding in State companies. That was a highly progressive social measure. It was also a tremendous achievement to overcome the crisis of the events of 11 September 2001 and the Leader has spoken most eloquently about that aspect.

I share the concerns expressed in the House on two issues. While I accept that Ryanair has had great success in getting people to visit the country, Aer Lingus has the strategic routes and the slots at Heathrow and flies to mainstream airports. It is very important and I would hate to see, in a future privatised company, the slots or routes sold off for short-term monetary gain. I also share concerns about the mid-west and the role of Shannon Airport. While I do not think the protectionism resorted to in the past is the answer to Shannon Airport, which is very important for the whole of west Munster, the arrangements have to guarantee its future role. It is not purely a question of air transport. It is also a question of the national spatial strategy, balanced growth and development and proper industry and services for Shannon. It is one of the regrets of my lifetime that where Shannon was the country's premier growth centre during my childhood and up to the 1960s, it is not any more. Shannon Airport should play an important role and I want to see it do so.