Mr. Basil Geoghegan:

As the Senator probably knows, and I said it the last time I was in front of this committee, the board would prefer to have more to do with appointing members but it is not in our mandate. I totally get that.

On transatlantic and north-south routes, it would be good if we could improve north-south and east-west connectivity. It makes it easier when there is a PSO obligation because there are then operators we can at least be sure of in terms of revenue.

Indeed, as the Senator is aware, there are some new operators who are starting in that regard.

The transatlantic offering is probably a bit more difficult because that was really down to Norwegian Air, and in that format, it is no more. However, there are new transatlantic airlines starting again. We do everything we can. One of the things which I think benefits both Dublin and Cork, as members of the group, is to be out there marketing with airlines all over the world and trying to understand their needs. Sometimes, their needs can be fulfilled from both airports, and sometimes, from one or the other. That is what we are pushing to do. I hope I have answered the Senator's questions.

In relation to the regulatory system, I will step back a little and say that ultimately, it is a matter of Government policy. Frankly, it is a matter of what the Irish people want to get from all of their airports. We are responsible for two of them. That is a decision that we have input into, but it is their decision. The system must ensure that all of the pillars of the State, whether it is DAA, any other airports, the regulator, the IAA, are supporting achieving that policy. We will then take as our mandate to deliver whatever that is. The important thing is that there are not clashes within the policy. For example, we have a mandate to retain an investment grade credit rating. If we are going to retain that investment grade credit rating, it means we can only have a certain amount of debt and we need a certain amount of profitability. At the same time, we have a mandate to pay a dividend to the Exchequer. If we are to balance both of those mandates with investing for the future, we need to effectively cut our cloth in a way that we can afford. Part of that is driven by our main source of revenue, which is airport charges. I know for a fact that our airport charges are incredibly low compared to other European airports. We had a very good plan under the capital investment programme, on which we received broad support from the airlines. I realise that if an airline has an opportunity to introduce cheaper passenger charges, of course, it will be in favour of that, because as an airline, the focus is on profitability, and near-term profitability in particular, whereas we are thinking about how we can build something that will be there for the next 20 years or 30 years. I have no problem with airlines pushing for charges to be lower; we just have to strike the right balance.

Once we know what the goal is, we can all push towards it. However, we need to be clear about that goal. That is why we welcome the addition of sustainability as one of the building blocks in the regulatory system. The overall aviation policy and what we want from all our airports must be the starting point, then the numbers can deliver that. Clearly, we are not in a situation like Heathrow Airport. Airport charges at Heathrow were already £20 and were increased yesterday. To put that into context, our charges are €7.75. We do not have the economies of scale of Heathrow. Equally, it is not the case, as at Heathrow, that money is flowing out to private shareholders. In our case, the shareholder is the Government, so the money goes back to the people of Ireland. It is a closed system in terms of finances. We need to do whatever we think is the right thing. It is not that money is being leaked to one constituency or another, other than if we simply say that we are going to reduce our charges and transfer value to the airlines. To me, that is something that we need to look at on a heads-up basis. Then we will be fine. Apologies; that is probably a slightly long elaboration. It is our fundamental principle behind how we approach this. It is not about complaining about charges; it is about what we want and how we finance it.