Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail)

The vote will take place in the coming weeks. I hope we can have a debate not just about that but how that this breakthrough will affect the future of the State Airports Act. Clearly, if the vote is successful, a significant business plan will be put forward.

It is also important that the Government makes a statement at this stage on the funding necessary for Shannon to deal with the fall-out from the open skies agreement. It is incumbent on the relevant Minister and the Government to provide the required funding to allow Shannon to make the transition necessitated by what I would term the fall-out from the open skies agreement. It would allow the airport to continue to offer services to the transatlantic routes and ensure facilities are on the west coast of Ireland so that we not only get our fair share of tourism from the United States but are also in a position to offer direct daily services 12 months of the year to the industrial base that is the entire Shannon Airport and wider mid-west region.