Taking up from the previous speaker, we are about to invent a twin for SUSI this afternoon, called ReBo. I hope the two of them get on well and perhaps they could make one another more efficient than they are now.

I welcome the Government's announcement yesterday of the separation of Shannon Airport from the Dublin Airport Authority. Passenger numbers at Shannon Airport have dropped by 61% from a peak of 3.6 million. It is necessary for it to become a low cost airport to attract low cost airlines in order to develop the region and Irish tourism in general. The future of Cork Airport should be examined in the same context. The 41% increase in airport charges at Dublin Airport ordered on completion of Terminal 2 has been bad for tourism and for access to Ireland. We need to rebrand all the airports so that airlines will want to use them to bring more visitors into the country. The 41% increase in charges should not have been allowed to stand. The Minister, Deputy Varadkar, has said he does not want to repeal it. In my view, it has to be undone in order to make Ireland an attractive place once again for tourism and tourists.

I welcome the Government's announcement yesterday. It is very heartening to hear the comments of Senator Barrett, one of the most eminent transport economists in the country. He spoke of the benefit of this separation for the aviation industry and also for the mid-west region. I note the almost unanimous support for the announcement. That Shannon Airport will be independent of Dublin Airport and in a position to negotiate with airlines across Europe and the Atlantic to bring tourists into this country, is welcome. Deputy Dooley's response was the notable exception to the welcome but we will leave that where it is.

The announcement that heads of an agreement and memorandums of understanding have been signed with at least two companies planning to create 850 to 1,000 jobs in the next couple of years is very welcome news for County Clare. The potential for between 3,000 and 5,000 jobs will definitely revitalise the economy of County Clare and the economy of the mid-west region. Shannon Airport has a tremendous future. In the decades from the 1960s to the 1990s it served as an engine for economic development throughout the mid-west region. I am confident that in the next 30 or 40 years, Shannon Airport will again drive the economy of the west, not just County Clare but up as far as County Mayo and down as far as County Cork.

I would be reluctant to go up as far as Mayo because we have our international airport at Knock. I have every intention of supporting all efforts to ensure that Knock Airport is developed and that it does not suffer in any way as a result of the decision to decouple Shannon Airport. Deputy Dooley may not be alone in his views. I am sure Senator Conway will be aware of the vociferous criticism voiced by one of the leading airlines in the world - through Michael O'Leary - at the aviation conference on Monday. There is more to this story than meets the eye. It will be interesting to see how it develops. Nobody in this House or outside would do anything other than to wish the mid-west region every success with this venture.

I wish to add to Senator Norris's comments about a debate on abortion. I appreciate the House will debate the expert group's report this Thursday. However, quite frankly I do not think that will be enough. This is my personal view because my party has yet to formulate a policy on this. Ultimately, it will need to be brought before the people. We have gone to the people on two occasions in the past. It is the people who are sovereign, not the Parliament. We are not Britain which does not have a written constitution and where Parliament is sovereign. The people are sovereign in this republic. I cannot see any way out of the dilemma now facing the Government. It can legislate until the cows come home.

The Government of the day has to deal with it but it will not be done through legislation. There are Members who have a diametrically opposed view from mine on where this debate will go and if they believe that the people will stand by and allow the legislators to decide, we will end up with abortion on demand because that is what has happened in both Britain and America where the argument moved from the physical to the psychological. Once that happened, it opened the floodgates.

Will the Leader ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government to come to the House early in the new year to discuss his proposals for the abolition of local development companies throughout the State? In theory it sounds great to merge services locally. I have become a convert to the concept of partnership development companies over the past decade. I started off, like many of us who served on local authorities, believing that they were shadow local authorities that had no public mandate but the volume of work they do on social inclusion and on worthy projects in every county will be lost, as will the expertise and architecture that has been built in the past decade, if they are merged with local authorities. This is a significant Government decision that cannot be allowed to be handled in the wider context of legislation.

The Senator is way over time.

It needs to be debated as a specific issue to give Members on both sides of the House an opportunity to give their opinion on it. We are being lobbied on it and if colleagues have not been, they will be. Will the Leader consider requesting the Minister to come before the House?