Ms Mary Considine:

At the end of the day, what is fundamentally important is that we have a really good offering. We need to be very competitive and that is why our ask to remain in the regional airports growth programme is crucial because it support us in vital capital development. That, in turn, ensures that we are competitive, we have a sustainable business and we are able to put a very attractive proposition to our airline partners. At the end of the day, airlines operate commercial businesses and they will fly where they make money. It is important that all of us are able to put our best foot forward and put forward a really strong proposition for our region.

If we look at some of the research that has been done nationally, particularly by the ESRI, much of it talks about the importance of connectivity into the regions and of the value of that connectivity and how it supports particularly high-tech and high enterprise jobs. If we consider Shannon Airport, 40% of Ireland's FDI is within its immediate catchment area and that is no coincidence. It is there because of the connectivity that is provided through Shannon Airport. We have three flights a day into London Heathrow, a really important hub, and we have daily services to New York and Boston in the US. We will have Newark and Chicago coming on for the summer. That is really important to support industry. It is very important that we have our network of European services that bring tourists into the west of Ireland and support all the businesses along the western seaboard.

We believe we have a very strong proposition. If you look at our other two assets and look at it from a sustainability angle, the first thing to do is max out the capacity within State before looking at building new capacity, particularly under a circular economy. We have spare capacity in Shannon so we are offering a solution to the country to decongest the other airports. The capacity is available, and we want to max it out in the first instance.

Our third ask of the committee is to improve public transport access to the airport.

The better public transport access is, the broader our catchment area. The investment we made during the pandemic in particular broadened our catchment area significantly. People who would never have used Shannon Airport are now using it. This is about growing that.