Alan Kelly (Labour)

I am concluding. These slot conferences are important because they will decide the future of where Aer Lingus can work from. Wait until we see the decisions that come out of those conferences.

We in the mid-west will continue to fight this decision. The people of the mid-west are not whingers or exaggerators, and it is to their great credit that they have fought this decision. I will finish with a quote from the famed former Deputy Des O'Malley, who I mentioned earlier, in his excellent letter to The Irish Times:

The termination of services from Shannon to Heathrow will have its greatest effect in making it much more difficult to attract that kind of investment in the future. Apart from the loss of existing jobs, thousands of jobs that might have been created will not materialise.