Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. I also welcome today's announcement regarding the Safe Routes to School programme, which is fantastic, with over €15 million being provided for active travel.

On the aviation sector, in her opening statement the Minister of State referenced the importance of regional connectivity, particularly for the west. Ireland West Airport Knock is crucial, along with Shannon Airport. It is essential that we ensure that the reopening will be both safe and sustainable. It cannot be the case that we reopen and then shut down again. It must be a certainty in order to protect existing jobs in the aviation sector. Foreign direct investment is also crucial. We are trying to fight for investment, through Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, into our local areas and we need to ensure that we still have regional airlines operating.

Supports have been put in place for regional airlines and the Minister of State gave us some detail on that in her opening statement. I have spoken to a number of people working in the sector who are very concerned at the job losses. The sector has been incredibly badly impacted by the pandemic. It is very clear from those I have spoken to that it would be absolutely detrimental to open up and then to have any further closures. We are on a very positive path with our vaccination programme and are rolling it out as quickly as possible. We need to make sure we do not make ourselves vulnerable vis-à-viswhat is happening in other countries. Some have had to delay reopening because of high numbers of cases of different and really infectious variants.