James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Part of the statutory remit of the DAA is to turn a profit for the State. Obviously, any profits it makes must come back to the coffers of the Departments of Public Expenditure and Reform and Finance. What Mr. O’Leary is discussing here today will require a very significant amount of capital, regardless of whether it is decided to redistribute the €200 million pool of funding which is allocated for the tunnel. A great deal more money will be required to do some of the works at the airport that will be needed for additional capacity.

The other side of the argument is that the DAA must, essentially, make a profit. Does Mr. O’Leary have a concern about the structure of the DAA - how it is set up - in that the State is virtually required to take money from it regardless of whether it has difficult decisions to make about capital infrastructure? Of course, it cannot get State money directly under EU rules because the airport has over 3 million passengers. My understanding is that the DAA cannot receive direct infrastructure grants in the same way as Shannon and Cork have benefited greatly from. What is Mr. O’Leary’s perspective on the statutory remit of the organisation when it comes to getting the infrastructure that we need built?