Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

It is great to see another strong woman from the west getting up the ranks. I congratulate the Minister of State and look forward to working with her. I have a few points on the aviation industry and road transport while we have her ear. I am sure she is just as aware as everybody else in the room of all the problems so I will not waste time describing them. Instead I will focus on some suggested actions and solutions.

I remind the Minister of State that we are in a climate crisis as well as a Covid-19 crisis. There are solutions to both that could be married. Looking at the location of Shannon Airport and the length of its runway, we can bring in flights with 3% less carbon emissions than those which go to other airports. It is something we should take on board, particularly if we are trying to tackle the large fines we face from Europe because of our carbon emissions. We have enough going on with Brexit and Covid-19 without having to pay fines for carbon emissions as well. I ask the Minister of State to look into that and possibly use climate action as part of the argument for regional rebalancing.

Shannon Airport happens to be near the best place in the world in County Clare and it brings everybody to the Wild Atlantic Way, which has been a major success story for Ireland. When tourists come to Dublin, they spend much time, money and carbon trying to come to the west, so through regional rebalancing we should bring them to places where tourists really want to go along the Wild Atlantic Way. Shannon is the heartbeat of the entire region and there is no option to even think about the airport not surviving. It must thrive into the future.

To that end, I am an optimist and I have faith in the survival of Shannon Airport. Will the Government consider strongly the provision of a proper rail service to Shannon Airport from the Limerick to Ennis line? It is approximately eight miles from Sixmilebridge to Shannon and we must look properly at that idea. When we go abroad, we always expect to get a train from an international airport to a town so we should look at that option. Let us be optimistic, look forward and consider this rail service for Shannon Airport.

I will also speak to developing the Shannon Estuary. The transport of goods is part of the Minister of State's remit and Moneypoint is closing, so we will be losing jobs in the west. However, we could develop the estuary area as a shipping route for cargo. I would like the Government to consider this as an option as part of the just transition to replace some of the jobs that may be lost from fossil fuel industries.

We ship everything in Ireland with trucks. This was best practice in the 1990s but we must reconsider this model. Trucks are great because they carry large quantities of goods but they come with much danger. Every year the Road Safety Authority spends much money advertising the dangers of blind spots that trucks have, instead of saying it is madness to have something that big and heavy driving around the country and especially some of our small rural roads. Why are the cabins not being redesigned or why are we not considering giving limited access for trucks to cities and towns?

Our country was not designed for large trucks in city or town centres. The best practice from Europe is for trucks to stop at the outskirts of towns and cities, with goods being offloaded to smaller vans. Companies such as UPS and An Post have switched to using electric cargo bikes. It is crazy to think we bring wide trucks on roads that are so narrow. My town of Ennis has narrow streets and some have recently been pedestrianised but trucks are trying to turn or deliver goods on them. It is madness.If one goes to other parts of Europe, where they have copped on to this, trucks are not allowed into such areas. I feel really strongly about not allowing trucks into our towns and villages because they are dangerous. They serve a purpose coming from ports and I understand that. A redesign of cabins must also be examined seriously because there have been so many road fatalities as a result of truck blind spots. The Government funds advertising on blind spots in trucks when really the cabins should be redesigned, as they were with buses.

I wish the Minister of State the best of luck in her new role.