Mr. Pádraig Ó Céidigh:

If one looks at the overall context and one includes the property income from the Shannon Group, it definitely has been a financial success. It has also been a big financial success for the State and the Government in terms of the extra jobs that have been created and the focus that is around the 300 companies on the campus. Approximately 80 of those companies are focused on aviation, going to the next stage in terms of autonomous driving and so on, which is really cutting edge vis-à-vistransport. From that perspective, it has been successful.

On passenger numbers, there is work to be done but the business model of an airport is different to that of an airline. As an airport, we need to understand the kind of business model that triggers an airline to base an incredibly expensive piece of equipment, an aeroplane, at an airport. I believe Shannon Airport will be successful off its own bat. The transition in 2013 and 2014 was huge and took up an awful lot of staff and management time. The focus was on the transition and then it was on how the airport could become standalone.

As has been mentioned, the best way of becoming stand-alone was deemed to be getting income from renting out the property. A great deal of investment was put into the property in order to make it rentable and to bring in businesses. A lot of great work has been done. As the Chairman and others mentioned, the primary work had to do with driving passenger and flight numbers. That will be the core.