Mr. Joe Gilmore:

I thank the Senator for her positive comments on the airport, which are appreciated. As I said earlier, we had a catastrophic year, though no more than the other airports. Our passenger numbers are back to the level of the 1990s, with about 140,000 this year compared with 800,000 last year. We have a massive hill to climb over the next months. We are hopeful and getting more confident as the weeks progress and we get through this pandemic. With the support of the Government, regional stakeholders, local authority partners and chambers, we are confident that we can get back to a better position.

It is a question of timing and of how quickly the markets open. There has been much discussion about that. Like the other airports, we are in discussion with a number of airlines. Aer Lingus and Ryanair are our two main partners. Unfortunately, we lost Flybe through insolvency, but we are confident we can replace its services and, hopefully, continue to grow and push towards 1 million passengers in the not too distant future.

From a financial perspective, the announcement yesterday will serve to protect our cash and balance sheet positions. We want to be able to recover quickly and to have the necessary strength of balance sheet, as do the other airports, to be able to do that and play our part in what should be, hopefully, a strong economic recovery over the next 12 to 18 months.