Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 18 January 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport

National Aviation Policy: Dublin Airport Authority

Photo of Joe CareyJoe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses here. I congratulate Mr. Jacobs on his appointment and wish him well in it. As a committee, we are trying to have a say in the framework of aviation policy. As well as today's witnesses, we have met representatives from Ryanair and Aer Lingus. Members of the committee travelled to Holland and looked at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport and Rotterdam. Our point is that we have a very unbalanced national aviation cake and we are trying to address that problem. There are opportunities for both Dublin and other airports within that. The absolute dominance of Dublin is the issue. More than 90% of all passenger traffic goes in through Dublin. That has a knock-on impact. Dublin is overheating with huge pressure on housing, schools and infrastructure. We are trying to see if this could be done differently. There is plenty of spare capacity in other airports including in Cork and Shannon. There is an opportunity there. Senator Dooley touched on the point of trying to work together as a country. The DAA is a semi-state agency. What is in the best interests of the country? Is it healthy to have 93% of all air traffic going in to Dublin and the impact of that? Many people from Clare are being pulled to Dublin to fly out, bypassing Shannon Airport. Even when the Ryder Cup was announced for Adare Manor a number of years ago, the first thing done by Dublin was to welcome it and tell people they could fly in through the local airport in Dublin. There is constant aggressive marketing, whether it is on local radio or in the newspapers in the west of Ireland encouraging people to go to Dublin to fly. Notwithstanding that, we undoubtedly need a really well-run airport in our capital city. For me and for many other people, however, the mask slipped regarding Dublin and the pressure that is there, for example, with large amounts of people queueing out in the rain. We had several hearings here about the issue. It really became apparent how many people are travelling through Dublin and the airport's ability to cope with that. It is timely that we are having these hearing because this aviation policy is being reviewed. What is the witnesses' idea of aviation policy? Do they want Dublin to grow even more? There were 33 million passengers in 2019. Does the DAA want to double that or go even bigger? What does it want to do? Does the DAA have any regard for the rest of our country's airports and the role they have to play?

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.