Dr. Catríona Cahill:

I am aware of the time constraints so I will be very quick. We are supportive of an overall airport authority. However, there needs to be caution here as well that it should be the more historical format of Aer Rianta, rather than the Aer Rianta structure we had just prior to it being turned into the Dublin Airport Authority, because they are pretty much the same thing.

I highlight that in the case of Shannon's separation, it has not been depicted in an appropriate way because in terms of numbers, since separation from the DAA group, passenger numbers have grown by 22%. In Cork, during the same period they grew by 11% versus 63% for Dublin. We have to be very cautious here about asking for Shannon to be absorbed back into the DAA group because while Shannon was part of the DAA group, its market share fell from 13% to 5% and the exact same has happened with Cork Airport while it has been part of the DAA. We also have to bear in mind the significant underinvestment in Shannon that led to Shannon Group having to fund the €15 million runway; that runway came up for renewal while it was still part of the DAA group. In the same way we have heard in recent weeks about Cork's runway being due an upgrade for 30 years. As we have seen similar underinvestment in Cork, I would be careful about saying the solution here is for Shannon to go back to the DAA but I do take Senator Dooley's point that we should look to an overarching airport authority where the focus, as in the past, is not predominantly on growing Dublin Airport and that the overall approach is much more balanced.