Rose Conway-Walsh urges fast-track for Ireland West Airport SDZ

I want to talk to you about Ireland West Airport and I am sure that will be no surprise to any of you Ministers and the importance of it, the importance of it in terms of the development of the Atlantic Economic Corridor and particularly the SDZ scheme there. If that is built to its full capacity it could deliver over 95,000 square metres of commercial business and enterprise space and it could create 4,200 jobs. In the whole geopolitical climate and challenges that we are facing at the moment I think it is critical that this is done sooner rather than later. I welcome the fact that a project manager was appointed last year, but I would ask you for a specific timeline and how the Government aim to fast track the development, that development zone in order to enable the further development in the region, obviously that is also in terms of the Western Rail Corridor and the connectivity there to the airport is hugely important and I know Minister Canning that you are very familiar with that. I also want to ask you, I know you cannot dictate what flights go into Ireland, but can you consider when you are talking to Aer Lingus, could it be possible for a flight to be put on on Friday evening coming from Heathrow to the west of Ireland and going back late on Sunday evening as well to facilitate all the workers that are commuting to and from London and the region. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks to Deputy Conway Walsh for her contribution too. Just to Deputy Crow, look I want to see all our airports grow, I would like to see more flights out of Shannon, more flights out of Cork, more flights out of Ireland west and actually we are seeing growth in all of those airports and further projected growth this year as well in Cork, in Shannon and Ireland west indeed and Kerry as well and small growth in Donegal. I am also working just for the information of the House in relation to the property work on the PSO for the Dublin Derry route which was a commitment as well in the programme for government and one which I have got excellent support from the Taoiseach and Taunashter particularly through the Shared Island Fund so we are working on that and there is a commitment that we would like to see that an air route in 2026 Dublin Derry which from an all island basis and all Ireland basis is critically important and I have engaged with colleagues in the north on that so look what I would say I have met with Shannon Group, I have met with DAA obviously not just on Dublin but on Cork as well, I have been meeting the other regional airports shortly as well to go through their plans, I am very interested in the Deputy Commonwealth, I am familiar with that potential investment there and we want to support that as best we can because if you look at the industrial zones or commercial zones around our airports, the on campus jobs are critically important but the indirect jobs are, like take Dublin Airport as an example, about 22,000 people direct on campus, about 135,000 indirect jobs. As you grow your airports, every additional 1 million passengers is about another 1,000 direct jobs so that is how important aviation is so look I will work with colleagues on this, I know the cross party group in relation to Shannon are very earnest and very supportive of further growth in Shannon, I will support them in what they need to do but the, as Deputy Quinlan knows and has rightly said here as well, the Government cannot direct airlines where to fly but I have met with our airlines as well, I have met with Aer Lingus, I have met with Ryanair, I have met with airlines for America and as we have discussions with them there in relation to Ireland as a whole, all right, and certainly we are seeing, like, Aer Lingus' commitment, Ryanair's commitment to Ireland is very firm and where it makes sense to add routes they will and I would encourage them to do that too. So I will, as I said, just in relation to the regional airports piece, I think that piece of work should be finished by the end of this year, national aviation policy, taking your point that, I am looking at a ten year view, that can be reviewed along the way, it is not something that is set in stone, it should be a living, a document, a living plan as well and we have significant investment in our airports as well, like I referenced the 200 million euro investment in Cork Airport, really, really significant, it is going to transform that airport too. So certainly from the three Ministers here, myself, Minister Kenny and Minister Bullimer, very supportive of our aviation sector and fully recognise the importance of that sector for our own economy and for our society.