Paul Gavan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will speak about the issue of airports in the west of Ireland. I was at Shannon Airport last week. It is good to see the car park there full again. However, there is still plenty of unused capacity at Shannon and Cork airports, and there is certainly potential capacity at Kerry Airport, yet 88% of all flights that leave this island do so from the east coast. We know all the challenges that brings with it, including car parking spaces and congestion. It saddens me that every day when I leave Limerick, I see people queueing for a bus to bring them to Dublin Airport. This is an issue of an airline policy that is skewed in favour of the east coast, when 40% of the people who arrive in the State want to go west. It makes no sense. At the heart of it is this nonsense of pitting Shannon Airport in direct competition against Dublin and Cork airports. It makes no sense.

I have argued consistently in the House, for several years now, on the need for an enlightened transport policy that recognises we need to distribute our air travel more evenly, especially across the west coast. It is not as if this is not being done elsewhere. The Netherlands has embarked on this policy and has limited flights to Schiphol Airport for some years now. What is lacking, frankly, is the political will to get it done. I once again call for an urgent debate on airport and airline policy. There is huge scope for additional flights from Shannon, Cork and Kerry airports. What is lacking is any kind of vision to make that happen. We need a new policy for our air transport and flights. It should have happened years ago. We need to do it urgently. I ask for a debate on the issue so we can have some progressive thinking on an airport policy that will be inclusive of all of us who live in the west and south of the country.