National conference centre to be proposed again - O'Donoghue

The Minister for Tourism will bring proposals for a new national conference centre in Dublin to Cabinet within the next fortnight.

Mr O'Donoghue said the issue of a national conference centre had been an almost "perennial hardy annual" for nearly 20 years and he told Labour's tourism spokesman, Mr Jack Wall, that he would bring "positive proposals" to Government and then "we will have to await the outcome of that".

The Minister, who was answering questions about the competitiveness and efficiency of the tourism industry, also also said the "bottom line" in any change in the status of Shannon airport "could not occur unless specific guarantees were given to Shannon and the mid-west in regard to their future".

He stressed that he was not saying there would be changes in the status, and added that this was a matter for the Minister for Transport, who had stated his intention to introduce restructuring at Aer Rianta.

The interim report of the review group looking at the Ireland-US bilateral air agreement recommended that it be renegotiated, but Mr O'Donoghue said it was still "very early days" yet on the issue.

He pointed out that although the EU Council of Ministers had decided they were going to renegotiate the open skies position with the US, and had given the EU Commission the authority to continue those negotiations, he understood there might be some resistance from the US to change.

"It would be premature to say what the outcome would be," he said.