Cecilia Keaveney (Fianna Fail)

The executive officer of Derry City Council said it was consulted at an early stage. The council advised that its preference was to retain the existing schedule and that if this was not possible, it would have liked the new schedule to be as close to the old schedule as possible. The plane is now an hour later leaving Derry and I do not know who will be able to get up early enough for the flight from Dublin to Derry.

Given that the current PSO is for a plane staying in Derry overnight and the perfect timing can be seen by all, will the Minister of State come back to me in the near future on whether a similar bid was tabled? I accept that one thing can be cheaper than another but we wanted to retain what we had in Derry. I do not underestimate Aer Arann's desire to make this work. We just want to use our experience to help this to work for that company and for ourselves.