Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Donnelly for addressing us today. I would like to hear her thoughts on this matter. She mentioned the aviation sector. What is captured in our targets is domestic aviation flights. European flights are captured by the EU's emissions trading system, ETS. What are Ms Donnelly's thoughts on the debate around aviation in this country? This committee deals with aviation a great deal. I would like to separate the airports from the airlines for a moment. Each airport has its own growth pattern. They want to drive business to the airports Dublin Airport is our largest airport by a great margin because it is the national airport. It is on a voracious pattern of growth. It just wants more flights and is applying for planning permission to increase capacity with terminals and all the rest. The airports in Cork, Shannon and Knock are seeking to increase passenger numbers. Then we have the regional airports, which are making the case for their sustainability and continued existence. What is the council's view on the number of airports we have, what they say about how they need to grow and what that growth means? There is a debate around SAF within that sector. There is no SAF development on our island. I would appreciate it if we could set aside the SAF element for the purposes of my question.

I would love to be in a position whereby we could have free public transport. In order to facilitate this, the investment required to ensure that the public transport network infrastructure is of the highest standard would need to be in place. We are light years away from that. We have seen the example of Tallinn in Estonia. The authorities in Estonia introduced free public transport many years ago, but the investment in the bus fleet fell through the floor and they are having to row back on that. We welcome any reduction in the costs associated with public transport and want to see further reduced costs, but it is about finding the right point so we can continue to invest to ensure delivery of not only improved buses, electric buses, hydrogen buses, new rail, rail networks, MetroLink and the rest. I represent the Fingal constituency, which is located in suburban Dublin. One half of our constituency, including the third largest town in Ireland, Swords, has no rail network at all. Then there are the northern villages - or the rural villages, as we call them - like Naul, Oldtown and Ballyboughal, which would have similar bus services to those in Deputy Martin Kenny's or Deputy Cathal Crowe's constituency, where you might hope to get a bus on the hour if you are lucky or there might be a bus in the morning. There are massive gaps in our public transport provision. I ask Ms Donnelly to address both those points, but to start with her thoughts on aviation sector and how it is dealing with the issue of climate.