Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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221. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport regarding his support of connectivity and air access to the whole island, if he will please provide an account of the number of individual services (routes) that have been supported through the co-operative marketing fund per year since 2014, detailing which airport, State owned and otherwise, those services landed into; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43241/24]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I understand that my colleague, Catherine Martin, the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport, and Media will also be answering this same question, with reference to the Regional Cooperative Marketing Fund. Therefore, I will focus more broadly on the issue of connectivity and provide some detail in relation to passenger numbers at our State and regional airports.

International connectivity is facilitated through a network of international agreements, such as bilateral air services agreements, EU comprehensive air services agreements and the European single aviation market which is underpinned by EU regulation. My Department is responsible for the negotiation of bilateral agreements for Ireland and engages in EU level discussions when mandates for EU comprehensive agreements are being discussed and agreed.

An example of an EU comprehensive agreement is the EU-US Open Skies Agreement. It provides for transatlantic connectivity between the EU and the US, and is widely regarded as one of, if not the, most important agreements of its type in the world connecting two significant aviation markets to one another.

Ireland has capitalised on the Open Skies Agreement with the US and in 2023 Dublin airport was cited as 5th in the top 5 airports by direct connectivity to North America. Passenger traffic at our State airports continues to increase. For 2023, Dublin Airport was up 19% on 2022, Cork Airport was up 27%, and Shannon Airport was up 29%.

Similarly our (non-State) regional airports have established good connectivity with the UK and Europe. Over €138 million of exchequer funding has been allocated during 2020-2024 to support our regional airports, which has enabled this connectivity and the recording of strong growth in recent years.

While the above-mentioned agreements do serve to pave the way for air services to operate, ultimately the operation of scheduled and non-scheduled air services is a commercial decision for the air operator concerned, in cooperation with airports, tourism authorities, and other associated market actors.

That being said, with a view to supporting strategic route development to and from the regions, my Department will be undertaking a consultation process with relevant stakeholders shortly to consider the potential for the development of an Exchequer funded Start-up Aid Scheme for airlines. This is one of a number of actions recently announced under the Mid-Term Review of the Regional Airports Programme.