Received some good coverage from The Irish Examiner on my Croke Park poll, which is below.

One thing worth saying is that I think it’s good that we, as Senators, attempt to elicit the views of people as much as possible – and in this case, I’m glad that we did this poll and reached out to councillors from all parties right across the country.

The story is here: http://irishexaminer.com/ireland/coalition-faithful-want-new-croke-park-deal-180562.html

Knock Airport sent confidence in tourism soaring following the announcement of four new routes to Europe today From 2012, Ryanair will now be running regular flights between Knock Airport and Barcelona, Milan, Frankfurt and Paris. First of all, this is great news for inbound tourism into Knock and the west of Ireland and is a testament to the work being done by the team out here. Tourism grew by 10% in 2011, and we want to replicate that in 2012 – this is a good first move

With Lufthansa operating out of Knock Airport from May 2012, in a move that is worth an estimated €1m to the region, it is clear that this Airport is going from strength to strength. Indeed, in August, Knock had its highest number of passengers in a single month. Knock Airport is a good news story, and is a justification of our strategy of consolidating airports and ensuring that we have strong, viable commercial airports in each region.

Ryanair have placed a vote in Knock and the west of Ireland. Tourism is up 10% this year so far, we are laying the foundations to build on this success in 2012 and, personally, I hope to see another 10% leap next year.