Mr. Basil Geoghegan:

I will try to deal with the questions in order. If I may offer a light-hearted response to my having enough time for the role, I go through the airport every week and thought I might get a job there at some point. I have finally gotten one.

On Cork Airport, as raised by Senator Ó Céidigh and Deputy O'Keeffe, we agree that it needs an active strategy for developing its business. That is nothing to do with its being part of the DAA. Rather, it needs an active strategy because there are several airports nearby, including Shannon and Kerry, which can compete hard for business. Cork Airport is also in the unusual position of having good road infrastructure to Dublin. Ultimately, we have to get passengers to use it and persuade airlines to develop routes from it.

On the profitability point, the right way to look at this is that whenever infrastructure is in place for a long period of time, it may or may not be profitable in any one period but we need to make sure it is providing a return on that capital over the longer period. I do not have all of the figures to hand but I am happy to have a further discussion or provide the committee with the information. That is how we need to look at Cork Airport developing over a longer period.

I will pick up on the related point about transatlantic connectivity with Norwegian. It was a significant win to get the Norwegian flights to Providence. We were disappointed because, within DAA, we are a direct financial beneficiary of Norwegian running those flights. We want the airline to run more flights with more passengers every day. In the context of airline practice, a route is often started and it is a bit difficult in the beginning or it can be run during the tourist season but not in the off-season. I believe Norwegian has indicated that it will run again after the winter season but I need to confirm that. We see it developing and then, as passengers know the route is there, it will become easier to run during the winter season as well. We are focussed on that and it is important to us.

Under the national aviation policy, there is a review of the ownership of the airports every five years and I believe that comes up again next year. We will leave that to the Department and, ultimately, our shareholder to decide what they want to do. For as long as we own Cork Airport, we will do everything we can to make sure more flights and more passengers go through that part of our business. I return to the second runway to deal with Deputy O'Keeffe's question. At the IAA, the former chief executive, Mr. Eamonn Brennan, was a stalwart of Irish aviation. He was in constant communication with both the DAA and the Department about how the airport should be developed and how important these issues were. That communication has been going on for some time. The IAA had to take a decision to build a new tower, that would be able to cope with both runways, before a decision was taken that the north runway would go ahead. That was an important act of faith that the authority took in trying to move this forward.

The other point on the runway is that I am here from a DAA perspective to try to make sure that if we are going to spend a significant money to develop a runway, we want to operate it for the betterment of our passengers, our airline customers and the State. That is why we are pushing hard on the legislation. The Minister has not imposed any of these planning conditions; they were set down previously. This is about looking forward and making sure we are a small, flexible, efficient country. Let us do it right. We have seen the development of runways in other parts of Europe which have been difficult.

That might be a lead-in to the Senator's question on a second airport. The discussion about aviation infrastructure is interesting. We need to focus on the runway and what we are doing in developing the gate and stand capacity. Within what we have responsibility for, we have capacity well into the 2040s if we can develop it correctly. There will then be another discussion as to whether another terminal is needed. I would hate to have to build a new airport near any European capital city these days given the restrictions.

Senator Ó Céidigh also asked about passenger flow. The passenger experience is one of the important metrics that we measure in Dublin Airport. If a passenger does not have a good experience, that will be on social media within a minute and it will get more airtime than any other form of media. We are focused on that and I agree time and money are important. On money, the passenger charges which the airlines pay are competitive compared to other airports. That is subject to regulation as well and balance in respect of what we spend.

More important, however, is a safe and secure airport, which we may take slightly for granted, and then to develop the operations from there. The issue of drones was raised. I am not aware at this time of the DAA's policy on drones but the IAA has been at the forefront of drone regulation in Europe and policy on drones around airports. I am happy to return to the committee if the DAA is doing something separate. Given that our security and the security of the aircraft arriving are all governed by the IAA, that is something we work hand in hand with the authority on.

There was an earlier question on Brexit and Deputy O'Keeffe also asked about metro north. I am in the right place, with Ms Ross beside me. An airport is only as good as the infrastructure and the communities it is working in. Connectivity with the airport is, therefore, important. It is also important to us because we are under a restriction as to the number of passengers that can go through Dublin Airport. That is partly to do with how people arrive at the airport and we will deal with that in due course. It will be dealt with because the number of passengers now includes nearly 2 million passengers who only come into the airport and travel on, so that will help develop the airport in a different way. We support anything that will improve the connectivity of the airport to its near and farther surroundings. On bus stations, I am proud that the DAA has the largest bus station in Ireland within the confines of the airport.

In respect of Brexit, the issue not only for the DAA but for Ireland is the weakness of sterling against the euro has reduced the number of passengers coming from UK provincial airports. We have seen an increase in passengers from London as some UK firms may be relocating to Dublin, which has seen more people wanting to fly from London to Ireland. There is an issue in respect of the economic growth of the UK and its impact on Ireland. Generally speaking, if Brexit happens, on whatever terms and at whatever time, there will be an element of detachment of the UK from Ireland.

I have not started in the role yet, and I will gain a better understanding of our strategy on Brexit.. Every airport in Ireland competes with the two airports in Belfast, so to the extent that we can win traffic, that is good. When flying from the US to Ireland on a holiday, people do not necessarily pick an airport; they decide what is the cheapest and most efficient way to get here. This may sound like turning back time, but we may end up with duty free sales again for people travelling to the UK. It might be a while.