My question relates to the package of aviation supports announced of €126 million in total in grant assistance. I compare that to the withdrawal of stopgap funding of €375,000 to Waterford Regional Airport per year. There is a stunning absence of detail on this massive state aid to the sector. I have brought this up before. How is the Oireachtas expected to discharge our duty of budgetary oversight when we do not have the scantest information on this expenditure? We are always being told the airport sector does not get free state aid and therefore is beyond the scrutiny of these Houses. It is particularly important, when one looks at the out-of-control expenditure and practices going on in Cork and Dublin airports, as it appears this money falls out of the spirit of the Covid exceptions to EU state aid. Where are the economic analysis, businesses cases, procurement process, lobbying disclosures, oversight and public debate over what looks like a massive bung to Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports?

The whole aviation package is about the country. It not about individual airports but about facilitating travel and getting our capacity back up. The number of people travelling into Ireland is a fraction of what it was before the pandemic. The airports and airlines have sought a meaningful aviation package and Deputies from all sides of the House have asked us to do more for aviation. We have been criticised for not doing enough. This package was announced in the budget to support restoring capacity to airports and airlines and to make sure we can get people in.

As for why, it is to help the hospitality sector in terms of the tourism sector, so there are more tourists using the greenway in Dungarvan, for example, or other tourism sites in Waterford and across the south east. If we do not have the capacity to get people in, they will not be spending money across the length and breadth of the country.