Mr. Michael O'Leary:

Two things come to mind. What can Oireachtas Members do? This committee can apply pressure or ask the Department of Transport why we are not pushing these buttons. Ireland has a disproportionate weight in Europe, particularly when we are having discussions about environmental taxation on aviation. We are a peripheral island and do not have the alternatives which the Dutch, the Belgian, the Germans, and the French have to travel internationally. We are not willing to accept any more of these disproportionate and unfair taxes; in fact, we want the taxes rebalanced in order that all the rich people on long-haul flights or the Dutch people on transfer flights pay their fair share. That is what this committee and this Oireachtas can deliver and then we will deliver the rest.

I will come back briefly to Waterford Airport, since I am on the record on the matter. I have been asked by the new investors will we fly to Waterford and I have said we will. If it has a jet runway and a low-cost base, we will certainly return to Waterford Airport and put a service from London back in. I have a genuine fear and have spoken to some of the private investors and advised them to not invest in Waterford Airport because the viability of the airport will be extremely challenging. With the greatest will in the world, I do not want to see another set of public service obligation, PSO. levies for another set of domestic flights from Waterford to Dublin or something else that will only survive for as long as the taxpayer keeps egregiously subsidising it. We wish Waterford Airport well and we will be very happy to fly there but its viability will be super-challenging.