Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Not the best party.

I welcome all the witnesses here. I seriously acknowledge the work everyone does. From my time in the Department with responsibility for tourism, I got to see first-hand just how important all our airports, particularly the regional airports, are in bringing visitors, particularly visitors from overseas, to the regions, the huge economic spinoff from that connectivity and its connection to other, non-visitor-related economic activity. It is vitally important. Although I am not a member of this committee, I welcome the scheduling of this meeting because it is crucial we try to include as much as possible policies that are helpful to the aviation industry in our future plans. It is therefore good to hear from the witnesses directly today.

I acknowledge the huge work put in by all the witnesses individually and the work of their respective teams in their airports. I also mention Tourism Ireland. It deserves huge credit for the work it does. I have seen first-hand the level of work its representatives do in the various destinations served by the airports. Much of it goes under the radar - pardon the pun - but it is very important work. It supports the sustainability of routes and is vital to attract new routes in future as well. It gives great confidence to airlines when they see the national tourism marketing body rowing in behind the efforts. It gives them some reassurance when taking a punt on a new route as well, which is vital.

Overall, in terms of the sustainability projects for the future, I am interested in ideas about what airports can do to try to offset the impact of air travel and what can be done in individual airports. Do the witnesses have any novel ideas or plans for the future?

Rail connectivity will become more important in the future. My local airport in Kerry is the closest one in the country to a rail link. It is literally across a field from a rail link. Has there been any developments with Irish Rail to try to optimise that proximity in the future? Could more be done in that regard? It is a huge opportunity and a unique selling point. Kerry Airport is also going to be the closest airport to a greenway network before very long. I have a dream that some day people will be able to disembark from a flight at Kerry Airport, rent a bike and hop on a greenway. It is very doable. Is there buy-in from Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, and the other relevant agencies, including the local authority, to make that happen?

My next question is for everyone. The public service obligation, PSO, and the concept of an international model have worked extremely well for the regions. That includes Donegal and Kerry but also for other regions served by airports prior to that. It is a perfect model if it can be fine-tuned to serve international destinations through Schiphol and Heathrow airports and other major hubs. How realistic is that? I remember during my time in the Department, even though aviation was not my direct area, there were legal issues and questions about competition law and so on.

On the Kerry to Dublin PSO route, the Minister gave a commitment over a year ago to reinstate the PSO in the event of the commercial route failing or being withdrawn. I acknowledge the success, relatively speaking, of the Kerry to Dublin commercial route compared to 2019. That said, these things can change. Has the Department given any commitment of late to reinstate the route and the PSO in the event of the commercial route being withdrawn, failing or anything else?

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