Mr. Kevin Thompstone:

The Copenhagen Economics report, as it is now known, was led by Limerick Chamber with the support of the other chambers, the very same group that is involved here today. It is indicative of how important chamber members regard connectivity through airports in the regions. Every argument I am making here today applies equally to Cork Airport as it does to Shannon or any other airport in the western region. The Copenhagen report highlighted that very few if any countries in Europe or the rest of the world have the level of concentration of air traffic that Ireland has on Dublin with over 90%. In February, the Government announced the route incentive scheme which was very welcome. It provided €26 million of which €20 million was for Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports. As the incentive scheme is based on 2019 levels of traffic, by definition most of it will go to Dublin Airport. We need a strong capital city and we need a strong Dublin Airport, but we also need strong regional connectivity. Our issue is with the level of concentration in Dublin.

The rationale for either capping or incentivising more traffic into Cork and Shannon is to reduce the level of congestion. One of the things we have learned from the Covid pandemic is that there is a significant premium on space - space around people and ability to move into and out of an airport quickly. We can contribute to the Covid solution by bringing more traffic into Cork and Shannon airports. It is not an either-or in that sense. It is not about equity. It is about coming up with something that is sensible for our economy, for our country and for our people.

This comes back to the argument for intervention. If we do nothing and just leave it to the market forces, then the Copenhagen Economics people will be back in two, three, four or five years' time and that number will be 99%, which would not be good for the country.