Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said there would be air link from both Donegal and Derry to Dublin if he had his way.

Transcript

00:00I want to raise the very serious matter in relation to the Donegal Dublin flight

00:04Thornchester with you. It's the state's only public service obligation service.

00:07It has that status because no motorway, no rail and it's remoteness. The

00:12airline operating the service has been told that it has to reduce its

00:15passenger numbers by 5%. The chairperson of the airline has said that this now

00:20questions the viability of this service. Thornchester, the service is vital not

00:24just for tourism, for business, but there's 430 cancer patients that use

00:28that, that currently use that service to access their treatment in Dublin. So the

00:31point I make to you is this is Ireland's only public service obligation flight.

00:35Surely the passenger cap should not apply to a public service obligation and

00:41I'm asking the government to make that clear to the relevant authorities.

00:44I'd agree. I'd have to follow this through with the Minister. Is this the

00:50Dublin airport passenger cap? That has to stop. We have to have regional connectivity and the

01:01North West particularly suffers from a lack of connectivity either by rail, by

01:05road as you know with the A5 debate and we have to keep the air links open to

01:11the North West. If I had my way I'd prefer Derry also to be with Donegal to

01:16have an air connection and that's something that can be sorted.