Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to bring to the attention of the House an issue that was mentioned to me yesterday by a couple of old people. It appears that electronic panic buttons are connected through landlines. If this is the case, perhaps the Leader might suggest to the Minister for Finance that the forthcoming Finance Bill should provide for some sort of financial assistance to be given to older people who live alone to enable them to retain their landlines. Given that the vast majority of Irish people now have mobile phones and are able to get very good deals on them, I believe it was correct to look at consolidating the household packages. If it is the case that landlines are necessary for panic buttons to be installed, perhaps something can be done in the Finance Bill to assist old people who live alone.

I warmly welcome the announcement by Ryanair that it intends to bring an additional 1 million passengers into Ireland and to create 1,000 jobs. I hope many of those passengers will come through Shannon Airport. The fantastic facility at Shannon is probably one of the best airports in the world. I expect we will see further growth in the tourism sector next year, following on from the retention of the 9% VAT rate, the success of The Gathering and the dropping of the passenger travel tax. I look forward to the detail of the announcement. Michael O'Leary is putting his money where his mouth is. He said he would bring in an additional 1 million passengers if the tax was scrapped. He is moving very quickly to deliver on that.