Mr. Pádraig Ó Ríordáin:

The point about Cork Airport is that advantage is given to airports for good and understandable reasons. Cork Airport is competing with Shannon Airport, and when the latter was separated from the daa, the daa retained €100 million of debt. That debt was written off and a substantial rent roll was put into the group so there is non-aeronautical revenue coming into the group. In addition, when assets were moved from the daa to Shannon Airport, they were substantially written down. This means there is a lower depreciation cost for the assets of Shannon Airport. This frees up Shannon to offer deals that are not commercial in Cork. Cork could not responsibly provide these deals. If Shannon is offering deals to airlines, they will naturally follow their commercial interests and go to Shannon. That is why a number of flights, particularly to Poland, have transplanted from Cork to Shannon. The same number of passengers are travelling but coming from a different airport.

It is very important, particularly in the national aviation policy, that we recognise Cork as a sparkling airport with great connectivity and a good hinterland. It has decreasing numbers and we need to focus on it as the second airport in the State and ensure we do what we can for it. This involves a cohesive tourism effort in getting people into Cork. The fact that we have not been able to persuade one of the airlines to fly from Dublin to Cork is a big negative for Cork Airport. People would use it and fly on to Dublin whereas at the moment they are using the motorway. Much can be done for Cork Airport and I ask the committee to focus on it. There has been a big focus on some of the other regions over the past period. I make no comment on Knock airport but refer to Shannon particularly. In Kerry, there is a public service obligation and a subsidy of €270 per passenger. There is none of that for Cork Airport and I ask the committee to focus on that point.