Mr. Joe Gilmore:

I thank the Deputy for his positive comments. Yes, we had the Taoiseach last Friday for a visit to the airport with Deputy Dillon. It was a very positive, constructive meeting.

I will address the three points the Deputy has highlighted. As I outlined briefly, we have an infrastructural investment plan. There are two elements to it. One is ongoing maintenance of the existing infrastructure at the airport. All airports have a challenge with maintaining the asset and keeping it at a level that is required for the safe and secure transport of passengers and airline stakeholders in and out through the airport. That requires millions or euro in investment every year that the consumer does not see and the airports have to fund.

The second element to the plan is to try to improve the infrastructure both from a sustainability perspective and in terms of passenger handling and comfort. In our case we spend between €4 million and €5 million on average a year in capital expenditure terms. That is a combination of all those facets. Most of that we seek to get from the Exchequer because airports are relatively small businesses, as I outlined, and we do not generate multitudes of cash to be able to reinvest. We are therefore looking at a capital investment programme over the next five years of in the region of €25 million to €30 million. We are looking at a funding shortfall under the current regional airports programme of somewhere in the region of €10 million to €12 million, which has presented as a major challenge. Pre-Covid we were looking at a significantly smaller funding gap, but we have seen a significant escalation in construction costs on a number of projects, in particular a safety expansion on our main apron. We have seen an escalation in costs of somewhere in the region of 40% to 50% in the past three years. When we look at trying to fund even the 25% element of that type of project, it presents significant challenges for airports of our scale. We are therefore looking for more flexibility in respect of the review of the regional airports programme for airports of our scale in the hope that it could be considered and additional funding provided to allow us to carry out projects like that.

As for the PSOs and challenges in attracting new airlines, I think I have already outlined the challenges on that front. For all regionals, PSOs are permitted on an international basis. While they are an expensive channel to develop new routes with, I am of the view that even a short-term PSO for a two-year to three-year period over the initial market introduction phase for regional airports should be seriously considered. Alternatively, there could be some focused route development support, either-or or potentially both. That would be limited and short-term but very focused on getting new services up and running. I am convinced there is a market to open up the whole west coast of Ireland and the south west to new services right across Europe, but initial Government intervention is needed to take that initial step. It is not inexpensive, but in the medium term it will certainly reap significant dividends.

Finally, as for sustainability, I outlined earlier, just before Deputy Dillon joined, that Knock airport is part of the airport carbon accreditation programme. We recently achieved level 1 and will achieve level 2. That is part of the airport's commitment to achieve net zero by 2050 and a 51% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030. We are confident we will achieve that before then. I know that the other regional airports are also very focused in that regard. As part of the Department of Transport's recommendations, each of our regional airports has detailed sustainability master plans developed as part of our ongoing work in that whole area.