Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Thompstone and Ms Fitzgerald Kane for being appearing before the committee. As the Chairman and other members know, there is significant engagement with Shannon Chamber, the Irish Hotels Federation and all who hold Shannon close to their hearts and have concern for the airport. Far more happens beyond the Joint Committee on Transport and Communications.

I have read Mr. Thompstone's document, which was already presented to us in the county some weeks ago. What is proposed is very innovative. Three countries, Spain, Denmark and Cyprus, have operated schemes along the lines of the suggested traffic recovery support scheme. Mr. Thompstone is correct to say that this money will recirculate in the economy because landing planes on the tarmac in Shannon means that the passengers they carry will exit the airport and, invariably, spend their money in local shops and restaurants. They sleep overnight in local hotels. The economy is cyclical. The money comes back in and goes around. It is similar to the way people said the construction industry works in that 70% of the money circulates right back through the economy again and everything comes full circle.

Intervening in Shannon has effects throughout the region. The two are interlinked. They are cogs of a wheel going in the same direction. The economy in our region lives and dies in Shannon. I do not use the word "dies" in a pessimistic way. They are so symbiotically linked such that if one is damaged, the other also gets damaged. The proposed scheme is very innovative. It would involve a sliding scale that would take account of where figures are on a seasonal basis and thereby would allow the Exchequer to adjust. That is a point I have been making to my colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath. This intervention can absolutely work. The document is self-explanatory.

I want to change my questioning somewhat. I commend the witnesses before us. Two and a half years ago, they came forward with a document to reinvigorate Shannon Airport and air connectivity into an out of the mid-west. I refer to the report compiled by Copenhagen Economics and commissioned jointly by the chambers of commerce in the mid-west. It was issued at a time when Shannon was faltering and trudging along because it was competing against Dublin. Things were not very rosy. However, this document has a new sparkle to it because it is very relevant as we get beyond 19 July and as we look towards summer scheduling and, moreover, a recovery.

This needs to be looked at in tandem with a capital expenditure, capex, per passenger intervention involving a capping of the number of passengers who can land at the capital's airport. Before people in Dublin start jumping on Twitter, I am not looking to shut Dublin down. This works very successfully in the Netherlands where there is an annual cap of 500,000 flights into that nation's capital airport. That has resulted in many airlines using the airports in Eindhoven, Rotterdam and The Hague. It has driven far more traffic and given rise to a 6% to 10% boost in air travel via those airports. That was one of the recommendations from a year and a half or two years ago. Does Mr. Thompstone believe that is still in the mix?