Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

When we went to Holland, we examined its national aviation policy. One of the things we saw was that it caps the number of aeroplanes that come in and out of Schiphol. That enthused us because Dublin enjoys a position of dominance. Cork, Shannon, which is in my constituency, and Knock airports then grovel to get that other space. Only 9% or so of the market is left for those airports to try to compete for. The cap in Holland is not what we believed it to be in the first instance. It is more an environmental cap. It was made very clear to us as we left Rotterdam Airport that such a cap is coming down the line for all European airports. There will be environmental caps relating to fuel and nitrates directives, in addition to noise outputs from airports. Dublin Airport is already grappling with this in respect of residents around Saint Margarets, The Ward and areas like that.

Schiphol started working with other airports. It was felt that its way of maintaining its position as the national airport of the Netherlands relied on giving a slice of the cake to other airports and divvying it up more than it had. That is now working a little better. It is not perfect, and we have learned a little more about it in the past few weeks. I will return to my initial question regarding the likes of Shannon Airport, in addition to Cork and Knock airports. How can they help the overall national aviation picture, when Dublin Airport is probably getting quite close to those upper limits that the European Commission will have?