Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is my own slot now. I wish to pick up a couple of points. We have had the DAA in before. Since a new CEO has come in, we expect to bring the authority before us early in the new year. We will write to it about the issue of it having sufficient staff at both Christmas and next Easter.

I had a quick look at the Ryanair statistics and in 2019, 86% of its traffic was coming through Dublin, so roughly 14% was coming through the other airports. The airline is projecting that in 2027, 90% will be coming through Dublin, which is a higher share. This takes us back to the core question. We have a road network and so forth. I am a Deputy for the constituency of Limerick City and we are very proud of how our hurlers are doing and we hope and expect it continues. Shannon Airport has a capacity of 4.5 million passengers.

There is a question that must be asked. We have flown out of Dublin Airport on a Ryanair flight to Schiphol and, to be honest, it was chaotic. That was not too long ago. It was overly chaotic and we barely made our flight, although we were there well on time. Yet, if someone flies through Shannon, they will be through in good time as it has the 3D scanners. This is the question the public always ask. They love flying Ryanair and it is great it has extra flights going into Shannon. I know Mr. O’Leary is talking about competitiveness. What would have to change for Ryanair to fly extra flights out of Shannon Airport? What is that ingredient?