Pádraig Ó Céidigh (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have a couple of questions for Ms Hynes. Shannon Airport is my favourite airport, particularly for its ease of access. I can get in and out very quickly. We have been discussing why airlines may or may not use the airport. As Mr. Cawley rightly said, it comes down to economics. If airlines make money by serving a particular airport, they will go there. If they make more money elsewhere, they will go there. An airport cannot be moved. It is a fixed space. One can move an aeroplane wherever one wants, whereas an airport is a fixed, structured asset that cannot be moved around. That is the difficulty for those who manage airports. They depend on airlines and they are in competition with other airports for those airlines. I assure the committee that aviation is a serious and tough business to struggle in. That was my experience, although it might not be the case with Ryanair. If one makes €1 of profit per passenger, one is in seventh heaven.

It is about scalability, as well as everything else.

I have a couple of questions which are mainly for Mr. Cawley. I authored a Seanad public consultation report which represented approximately two years' work. It is the only comprehensive report which has ever been produced on SMEs in Ireland. It looks at industries on an industry basis and, separately, on a geographic basis. It is very interesting. We had engagement, for example, with Fáilte Ireland and many others. We engaged in public consultation and representations were made. In the hospitality and tourism sector key successes were mentioned. It employs approximately 280,000 people and 68% of the jobs are outside Dublin, which is of great importance. Of the people in question, 180,000 are engaged in the accommodation and food sectors, while 89% of the businesses involved are SMEs. That is from where I am coming on SMEs. I am going to connect it with Shannon Airport in a second. For some regions, tourism is the most significant industry. It helps to support local authority incomes. For example, if Donegal County Council did not have its current level of income from tourism, it would not be able to provide the community in the county the infrastructure it has provided. When I spoke to the county manager, he affirmed this. The tourism industry contributed approximately €2 billion to the economy in 2017.

I would like to hear Mr. Cawley's views on the key challenges which include currency volatility and the overuse of Dublin as a tourism destination. What can Fáilte Ireland to do with Ms Hynes and those like her in that regard? There were 32 million passengers at Dublin Airport in 2019, which is 18 to 20 times the number using Cork Airport, the second largest airport in the State which is in Mr. Cawley's home town.

Rising business costs are also a challenge, particularly when the unemployment rate is 4.5%. Issues in finding professional chefs and so on are mentioned. What is Mr. Cawley's experience in that regard?

Another issue is one that is dear to my heart, namely, the myriad agencies and supports in place for tourism. We are all over the place. Local authorities are involved in tourism. In my area we have Údarás na Gaeltachta. One has LEADER programmes and LEO involvement in tourism. There are approximately 12 to 14 organisations in the west with some involvement in tourism. From a policy perspective, it would be useful to co-ordinate that involvement in a structured way through Fáilte Ireland. What is Mr. Cawley's view? The work should not be splintered, with things getting lost all over the place. In former days one had one aeroplane type and a pilot could fly any aeroplane. There was a clear and simple model. It appears that in tourism, however, we are scattered all over the place, while people seek to hold onto their own peg for a sense of control and so on. I would value Mr. Cawley's opinion and like the Minister to listen when I say the activity should be co-ordinated centrally through Fáilte Ireland.

The report contains a number of recommendations, including on China. It also refers to SMEs. The Chairman is welcome to a copy of the report, albeit he probably has one. I have met perhaps 30 organisations in the past six months to discuss it, including IBEC, ISME, the Small Firms Association and various people involved in tourism. It includes statistics for the percentages of SMEs engaged in tourism. In County Kerry, for example, 20% of all SMEs are involved in tourism. One might not be surprised by that figure, but if something hits the fan in tourism, SMEs in County Kerry will be decimated. In Dublin, however, the figure is less than one third of that figure, at 7% of SMEs being involved in tourism. Therefore, the regional nature of tourism is critical. That is why Cork Airport, Waterford Airport and Shannon Airport have a critical role to play. We have to have the tourism industry and those airports on the same page. We also need strong and focused Government policy on facilitating regional development. It is not in Dublin's interests that the airport has 32 million passengers. It is in its interests that people can flow and find accommodation or housing reasonably easily. It is in the interests of the regions that there be some balance.

I ask Ms Hynes to set out some of the key challenges she will face in the coming three years. She has done an excellent job at Shannon Airport where capital expenditure was a significant issue. There was a problem with the runway which was uneven and cracked. I am particularly interested in her vision for non-core airline work in and around Shannon Airport. She has done some work on that issue. It would be useful if the committee could hear about the latest developments as to where she is with that strategy.