Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The reason for the change in name is exactly what the Deputy outlined. DAA is not just Dublin. It includes Cork and has business internationally. It is not just about airports; it has a consulting arm and a retail arm as well. It is not an authority but a company. The original intention was either to return to the old name, Aer Rianta, or to rename it by giving it a new name. When that was scoped out, the conclusion was that it would not be wise. There were two reasons: first, the DAA is now an internationally recognised name which has some value attached to it, and, second, the cost of rebranding on the previous occasion was approximately €3 million. Given that the company is really only returning to profit now and there are problems in the pension fund, which we will discuss later, spending €3 million on an expensive rebrand was decided by everybody to be inappropriate. Instead, we are moving to "daa", using lower-case letters. It will be a little like KPMG or CRH or EY, which used to stand for something but are now just letters. Nonetheless, the letters DAA have value, and it is well recognised as a company not just in Ireland but also overseas. The ideal solution would have been a renaming and rebranding, similar to Electric Ireland or whatever Bord Gáis will be called, but the cost was not justifiable in the current circumstances.