Brendan Ryan (Labour)

In spite of the fact that Stansted is a vigorously competing airport, airport charges in Heathrow are extremely high. If one books a return air fare from Cork to Heathrow to travel next August, as I happen to have done recently, the air fare is actually €9 with Aer Lingus. However, the ticket costs €54. The charges come to €45, most of which are incurred in Heathrow.

I wish the two Government parties would abandon their dances with various partners and abandon a nonsensical ideological position that is not based on objective evidence. We should get a plan to give our capital city an airport which works. The sight of two parties staring at each other and setting out their aims separately reveals a level of incompetence that should be resolved after eight years in Government together. The Government parties should learn to work with each other as they have been practising for long enough. The people of this country and city are the victims of the inability of the Government to make its mind up about a fundamental issue.