I wish to raise an issue with the Tánaiste on foot of the pending announcement that President Biden will allow transatlantic flights to resume from November. The Tánaiste will be aware that Shannon Airport has key transatlantic destinations to the likes of Boston and New York. The Heathrow Airport route is now back up and running, which is positive. We want to see that continue. The Tánaiste mentioned earlier about looking at funding for strategic routes. Shannon Airport has three current strategic routes, namely, Heathrow into Europe and worldwide and two transatlantic routes to Boston and New York. All three routes involve Aer Lingus. There are also other airlines flying transatlantic. Can the Tánaiste advise if there are discussions ongoing with Aer Lingus?

The Deputy's time is up.

What supports are to be provided to airlines and to the likes of Shannon Airport for those three strategic routes?

First, I join the Deputy in welcoming the fact that the Shannon to London Heathrow route is operating again. That route opens Shannon and the midwest to the world. It is important that that is happening again. I welcome President Biden's announcement that fully vaccinated people from Europe will be able to travel to the United States again. That allows us to get routes from Dublin and from Shannon to the United States up and running again. While I cannot go into any details around discussions with individual airlines, I can say the Government will be willing to put money on the table to incentivise airlines to restore routes that were lost during the pandemic. Of course, we have in our mind a hierarchy of routes that are most important. I do not think that the Deputy is too far off the mark in that regard.