Tourism Promotion
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-13
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Peter Burke (FG), Longford-Westmeath

It is a very important destination for us. We have 21 gateway hubs with the US now. We are keen on expanding them. I was in Savannah and Atlanta for a St. Patrick’s Day mission a couple of years ago. Delta raised with me that it wanted to put new routes into Ireland but the cap at that point precluded it from doing so. We need to resolve the airport cap this year - that will be critically important - and grow those routes. I have specifically raised the strategic air activation scheme with Tourism Ireland which could work for Savannah. It would be important to try to get direct flights in. I am aware of the tertiary education link with Wexford and strong links there with the great work taking place on the ground in Wexford and in Savannah. The enthusiasm is incredible. So many business leaders on both sides of the Atlantic are working hand in glove. I would be very happy to work with Deputy on that to try to get that connectivity. It is an important marketplace for Ireland. Two-way bilateral relations benefit both sides, as we can see from tertiary education and other areas.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-13/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:30+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-13