CORK - 5

[GCUFD]

...the regions will always struggle benefit from a larger share of international tourism and business connectivity...

I'm not sure it's realistic to frame the issue as if the regions were in some way inaccessible from Dublin Airport. Can I throw out some helpful quotes?

Power slams O?Leary | Limerick Post Newspaper

Shannon Airport executive <...> Declan Power <...> “We had a Ryanair base. We had 32 destinations with Ryanair, 22 of them were to Europe and 80% were outbound. They weren’t really getting the tourists in."

http://www.wdc.ie/wp-content/uploads...evelopment.pdf page 28

The vast majority of tourists enter Ireland through Dublin and Table 2.7 serves to highlight the importance of the road network in distributing visitors around the country. There is clearly scope to increase throughput at Knock, City of Derry, Shannon and other airports. However, it is likely that the majority of visitors to the west will continue to access the region from the East coast.

http://itic.ie/fileadmin/docs/New_Di...s_-__Final.pdf page 4

Almost 7 out of every 10 overseas holiday visitors to the west currently arrive in Ireland via an east coast gateway. These holidaymakers account for 80% of overseas holiday bednights in the west.

Surely the access offered to the regions by Dublin is a resource and an asset, rather than an obstacle.