Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all our guests joining us and acknowledge their dedication, hard work and resilience over the past 24 months, during Covid. To see such positive returns in our aviation sector and how it has responded in passenger number terms is a testament to each and every one of the witnesses' teams and their work on the ground across the country.

I also thank Mr. Gilmore for having facilitated a meeting with the Taoiseach last Friday. It was a very positive meeting about the future development of Knock airport, the importance of State support and an acknowledgement as to where we need to go as regards policy on national aviation and the regional airports programme.

We have heard various contributions. I will focus on three key areas, one being infrastructure and investment. As for future developments, Mr. Gilmore talked about capex projects on terminals, new aprons, etc., in the context of the difficulty it would pose for regional airports to look for that type of investment without State support. Maybe he can give us an update as to where policy should be directed in that regard.

As for the PSO support for new routes, incentivising airlines to support regional airports and how we can drive more passengers towards our regional airports by providing additional offerings, that is an important step the Government should look towards. We all understand that Dublin Airport is overheating, with millions of passengers going through it. We would like to see that activity spread across all our airports, be they in the west, the mid-west or the south.

My last question is about the innovation and technology coming on stream that would present opportunities around sustainability measures throughout our airports. There has been a lot of talk about the green airports programme. Where do we need to go to in respect of our commitment to action on climate change?