Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

I spoke last Thursday about the traffic chaos in the vicinity of Dublin Airport and the difficulty in accessing the main airport building. I suggested we should examine the possibility of developing another airport in the eastern region because if a major incident occurred at Dublin Airport it would cause utter chaos, but little did I know then that such chaos would occur a few days later, as happened yesterday. While what happened was unacceptable and we cannot speak about that, it threw the airport into chaos and discommoded thousands of travellers.

With the number of people using Dublin Airport and the expected growth in passenger numbers, we should seriously examine the provision of another airport in the eastern region. If we are to maintain and grow our tourism industry and maintain our other industries, we need to ensure that we have an airport that can cope with the numbers who wish to avail of it and to ensure their safety at all costs. When a major incident occurs, and hopefully there will be no further such incidents, we must ensure that the eastern region does not close down. In light of yesterday's incident at the airport, I request that we seriously consider developing another airport in the eastern region.