Mr. Kenny Jacobs:

There are a few elements to that. I reiterate that Dublin Airport is competing with Manchester, Edinburgh and the big international hubs. Regional airports in Ireland are competing with one another. The geography of the Netherlands, and the distance between Schiphol and Rotterdam, is very different from travelling by road from Dublin to the other regional airports in Ireland. That is one point. I know Schiphol well and there is a great story on all the things the Deputy called out. I will call out one thing that the Dutch are not doing right. The Deputy listed many things they are doing on sustainability but, at the same time, the Dutch Government is saying that if people fly from Dublin to Schiphol and then from Schiphol to Nice, which produces more carbon than flying from Dublin to Nice directly, it will exclude the connecting flights from carbon emissions calculations. It is somewhat the case that all the things the Dutch Government is doing we are doing as well, but every flight should be taxed and there should not be an exclusion for connecting flights.

Not everything the Dutch do and everything at Schiphol is something we want to do at Dublin. The geography of Schiphol and Rotterdam is not the same geography as that of Dublin to the regional airports. Our competition, and the way the airlines view it, is Dublin versus the international hubs but Cork, Kerry and Shannon are competing with one another when it comes to flights. That is the way the airlines look at it as well and they will continue to be part of that healthy competition.