Alan Kelly (Labour)

I wish to raise two issues. I call on the Minister for Transport to come into the House — I know we had a discussion on Shannon last week — to discuss overall access and aviation policy. We are heading into the most important time of the year for tourism because it is the planning season. We need to discuss how people will get into this country. The industry is concerned in regard to access because promotion by the tourism agencies can be aligned only to how one gets into the county, and access to this country in particular areas is of concern. Obviously the mid west is one such area. In November 2005 the then Minister for Transport, Deputy Cullen, announced the open skies agreement and called for the development of a tourism and economic plan in order that he could offer support, based on that plan, which reported in June 2006. The support for the mid west, based on the open skies agreement——