Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

I join my colleagues in wishing the Cathaoirleach well in his term of office. I support colleagues who spoke previously on the need for an urgent debate, if at all possible today, on Shannon. We live on an island. I live in the west. To trivialise the importance of Shannon to the livelihoods, the business and the tourism of the west as a matter of Belfast versus Shannon is not to know the full impact of Shannon in the region. Shannon is of critical importance to connectivity between business and the wider world.

The Shannon Heathrow slots link Shannon and the west of Ireland to 46 cities in the world. In August IBEC surveyed 200 companies in the west and found that 60,000 seats are filled through Heathrow. I have listened to many companies speak about the impact of losing these slots and rather than going on about it in the House today, I call for a full and urgent debate. I urge all my colleagues to consider the fact that Ireland is more than just a section of the country. We need to take care of the west. I remind the House that this issue is of strategic national importance. The chairman and board of Aer Lingus have spoken about those slots being perhaps more suitably placed outside the country. We could be looking at a national airline that is foreign-based. When the airline was privatised, we held a 25.4% shareholding to protect our strategic national interest. Why did we hold it if we are not going to use it?