Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State correctly identified the considerable support the State has provided to Shannon and to other airports, which is welcome. What we now need to look at is to move beyond the care and maintenance of the airport sector. It is hoped that, all going well, 2022 will be the beginning of the end of the Covid pandemic and in parallel with that we will have a reawakening of the tourism and aviation sectors. I want to work with the Minister of State and others, as I have done in the past, to try to ensure that when we rebuild, we rebuild better and that we build a fairer base. The policies that existed heretofore, unfortunately, skewed the activity towards the east coast to an extent that was too great. Shannon Airport had 1.7 million passengers compared to up to 35 million in Dublin. Some 500,000 or 1 million extra passengers through Shannon Airport would make an amazing difference to the lives of many people who work in the airport and the tourism and hospitality sector in the region. The lack of growth in Dublin would only help the city and Dublin Airport. It there is to be further growth of 1 million passengers in the coming years, it would be lost on Dublin and would merely put further pressure on the infrastructure there. There is a real opportunity to get a policy shift right now by putting in place the key supports that will enable the recovery of Shannon and to skew in an incremental way increased growth in Shannon and the mid-west region.