Mr President, I and my party, the Fianna Fail Party, have always been very loyal supporters of the idea and the concept that Parliament should sit in Strasbourg. We still hold that view today.

But that apart, I wish to say to you, Mr President, that I am a bit disappointed that Mrs Trautmann is not here, because the matter I want to talk to her about is the accessibility of Strasbourg for us, the people who live in the outer parts or in the peripheral regions.

On Monday morning of this week I left my home in the west of Ireland at 10.45 a.m. and despite my best efforts I arrived in this city at 10.15 p.m. Mr President, I want you to take on board a facility whereby we can get a shuttle service out of Strasbourg to Paris or up to Brussels on a bi-hourly basis so that we can make our normal connections and not leave us struggling with this silly idea that we have a special airline from the capital cities coming here on a Monday which is only of service to the limited few from any particular nation.

Mr President, I appeal to you because if this continues Strasbourg will fall anyhow by the fact that we do not get the services to bring us to this city.