Maria Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for being present and taking the place of the Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Deputy Naughton, whom I understand is attending a meeting in Dublin Airport. I call for balance in regional air routes in the context of what is happening in Dublin Airport. We must explore short-, medium- and long-term solutions. I tweeted over the weekend to encourage people to consider using regional airports and particularly Shannon Airport. It has the longest runway and the capacity to handle up to 4 million passengers annually. The numbers using the airport in the context of that overall capacity are low, but as we emerge from the impacts of Covid-19, the availability of flights and the numbers of passengers using them is increasing. It is good to see that happening.

A great deal of investment went into Shannon Airport during the Covid-19 pandemic. The security processes there now use scanners that allow passengers to put their bags right through. There is no need to take bags off for security personnel to examine. This development has significantly reduced the time taken to go through security at the airport. What happened in Dublin Airport over the weekend has caused reputational damage to Ireland. Even looking at the news headlines on Sunday evening, we heard from people from other countries saying they would never come back. This experience has caused reputational damage not just for Dublin Airport, but for our tourism industry nationwide. People come here because airlines, such as Ryanair and others, offer many cheap flights and encourage people to come here for long weekends or short holidays. People have been doing that and many are travelling more frequently because they could not do so during the worst of the pandemic. They might now be going away once a month or something like that.

It upset me to hear people on the television say they would not come back here. The Minister of State is from the regions. Waterford has its own airport, and we have Shannon on our doorstep. We also have airports in counties Kerry and Mayo. We have many fine regional airports. When I posted my tweet encouraging people to use these regional airports, it got more than 1,000 likes. We often see people liking tweets, but then giving out in the comments. The comments from people over the weekend, however, were good and positive. It is encouraging. Equally, however, I read a tweet from someone who drove from Clare to Dublin Airport to go to London for the weekend. That flight cost €32. If the person had flown from Shannon Airport, the equivalent cost would have been €303 one way. That is a big cost differential. This situation will not solve the problems experienced at Dublin Airport. Flights to many holiday destinations could be given to the regional airports to operate. People from the mid-west or the west should not have to go to Dublin to be able to access these flights. Equally, with business flights, there are no European connections from Shannon Airport. This is something the Government must consider.We encourage regional development for job creation and education but not for flights. The Government needs to sit down with the regional airports and the DAA and work out a plan.

While I know the DAA was short-staffed, I understand it has taken on 300 staff and is only short another 70. If those 70 staff were in place, we would still have had queues. This morning, I saw that some of my colleagues visiting the European People's Party, EPP, congress got through to their flights in two hours or thereabouts. We need a long-term plan and to use our regional airports because we cannot afford to have reputational damage to our tourism sector.

On a final point, some people are being very abusive to staff at the airport. It is not the fault of staff so people should be courteous towards them.