Maria Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I rise today in a celebratory mood. First, I congratulate Limerick's West End Youth Centre on taking first place in the Pride of Place awards a few days ago. The creativity aspect of its youth programme was acknowledged in granting it the overall award. Congratulations to West End Youth Centre. In addition, Limerick Youth Service is celebrating 50 years in operation this week. It was started by the late Sr. Joan Bowles, working with many other visionaries. It was about laying out a pathway for youth and putting a programme in place to provide training, youth cafés and so on. Its purpose was to give a space to young people to come together, work together and share ideas and resources. Many participants went on to join national youth organisations like Comhairle na nÓg and others. Fifty years ago, Sr. Joan and her team were to the forefront on this issue and the Limerick Youth Service centre was one of the first such centres in Ireland. Congratulations to the centre.

Other good news for the mid-west is the report published this week on Shannon Airport, which shows the airport has exceeded expectations in terms of the number of passengers who have come back since the Covid crisis. The number is up to approximately 80% of the 2019 figure, which is welcome. I compliment the CEO of the Shannon Airport Group, Ms Mary Considine, and her team. They used the Covid period as a time to turn around operations at the airport, including putting in new supports and a new security system. They did Trojan work, supported by funding they received from the Government. Congratulations to Shannon Airport.