Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

I am sure the House will join with me in congratulating the board of Ireland West Airport on securing a scheduled service direct from the west to New York and Boston from this summer. In that context, I ask the Leader, as a former Minister in this area, to give support to the application from Ireland West Airport for a share of the €75 million that has been allocated by the European Union to the Department of Transport for the development of regional airports. The application from Ireland West Airport is currently with the Department and the funding would go a long way towards upgrading facilities at the airport in the context of the expansion of the services. I am sure the House will agree this has been an extraordinary success story. It is a marvellous psychological boost for the west that a concept that was once described — I will be kind and not reveal who said it — as an airport on a soggy, boggy mountain top has proven one of the great economic success stories of the west.

I ask the Leader to pass on the good wishes of the House to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who is currently in Palestine and the Middle East, on his overnight announcement of a significant increase in the contribution from Ireland to the United Nations Relief Works Agency. I know Senator Norris also has a particular interest in this area, and we have often discussed it in the House. To see the photograph in this morning's national newspapers of the Minister with Palestinian officials greeting young children in what is a war-ravaged part of the world, and to see the smile on their faces, was heartwarming. It is a great credit to the Government in general and to the Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern, that this significant increase of in excess of €16 million will go towards providing much-needed schooling and medical services in an area where, as those of us who have been there can assure the House, they are badly needed.