Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have made no allegations. I am asking questions, and if Ms Hynes chooses not to answer anything, I have no intention of badgering her because, on a personal level, I have good regard for her but we are talking professionally.

In 2011 and 2012, Ms Hynes led a campaign to separate Shannon from the DAA promising a bright future for Shannon if it could compete effectively with Dublin. It was often said, and I do not attribute the comments to Ms Hynes, that if the dead hand of the DAA could be taken off Shannon, it would prosper in a free market. The Government at the time went ahead with that. As Ms Hynes identified, the current Tánaiste, who was Minister for Transport at the time, initiated that separation and rewarded her with chairmanship of the airport in 2013. That was a quasi-executive role for Ms Hynes. During that time, Shannon went through three CEOs and numerous managers were hired and left.

In 2013, tourism was at an all-time low. Numbers through the airport were at an all-time low because of the global financial crash. In that year, Shannon launched a five-year plan to grow passenger numbers from 1.4 million to 2.5 million. Back in 2007, prior to the crash, numbers going through the airport were 3.65 million, so 1.4 million was a very low base and, therefore, 2.5 million was seen as possibly being conservative. The reality is that over that period of time, passenger numbers at Shannon grew by only 300,000 to 1.7 million while the numbers at Dublin grew by 13 million.

That was on Ms Hynes's watch. What was her role at that time? Was she the chair? Was she involved in any way in management? Did she see herself as having an executive role? Did she initiate or involve herself in any of the day-to-day management? Was she involved in procurement of any services for the airport? Did she lobby for any members to join the board of the airport with her?