Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Mr. Jacobs on his appointment. He has a tough role ahead of him, I would think.

At the outset, I have used Dublin Airport quite a lot since the airport has opened up. I will take this opportunity to compliment the staff who work under Mr. Jacobs, particularly those who work at the coalface in security and the like. I have never yet met one who was bad humoured, albeit they were under severe pressure. It is a mark of the type of people the DAA employs that they are able to cope with such a swell of people from time to time. I congratulate all involved out in Dublin Airport.

I now want to talk about the issue of car parking. As far as I am aware, the DAA operates the red, green, blue and two short-term car parks, one each at T1 and T2. I have to say that I see them as the greatest rip-off that ever existed in this country with the costs of parking at Dublin Airport. The charges there are absolutely outrageous for people travelling out of the country. One in four passengers travelling through Dublin Airport is parking their car there. This is down to the policy of this country that we have not put in place proper infrastructure to be able to get to the airport. I compliment all of the different bus companies that now are feeding passengers into the airport, which I hope improves things. There are two things in my mind, one of which is that Dublin Airport is self-funding. Is it charging the enormous car parking charges to fund something else? My second issue is I am aware that the former QuickPark recently went up for tender. I understand - perhaps the witnesses will confirm for me - that the DAA has won the competition to purchase. Why in God's name would the DAA want to buy another car park? I thought it was into competition. Ryanair brought us from the situation where nobody could afford to fly to everybody now being able to afford to fly. It is now like jumping on a bus. Why would the DAA want to own all of the car parks? Would the witnesses care to address this first please?