Mr. Basil Geoghegan:

I thank the Deputy for the questions. I will deal with the last one first. Without being too aviation-geeky about it, we need new piers and gates as opposed to a new terminal. The terminal being the entrance to the airport, we do not need a new one. We can use what we have to build what we need for, probably, the next ten years. There was some work done under the previous Government on the necessity of a third terminal. We believe that additional piers and gates will address the issue. It was absolutely within our capital investment plan to do that. It was going to be tough to do based on the passenger charge when we were at 33 million passengers, growing to 40 million, but when we are back at a run-rate of 15 million passengers it is impossible to do. That is one of the reasons we want to get back to this. We need to have the funds so that we can invest. The Deputy is correct. I do not know whether it will be in five years or ten years, but it will be needed and we cannot just take a decision then.

On the eastern access, we had done a reasonably good job in terms of having both Cathay Pacific and Hainan Airlines. The Middle East carriers continue to be a very good point of access for Irish people to the rest of the world because they offer a huge variety of options. Hainan Airlines is owned by HNA Group, which is currently being nationalised by the Chinese Government. I am not sure what will happen in that regard. Hong Kong Airlines has also had its difficulties. The Chinese State has taken the view that there is huge economic benefits to not facilitating Chinese people to go shopping around the world and that it is better to have them shopping at home. I am not sure how keen they will be to do it. We are out there all of the time looking at these areas, including in places that are east but not that far east, such as Tel Aviv.