Michael Lowry (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

He was getting rapped on a regular basis. That brings me to the DAA’s projections. Mr. Jacobs is saying “by 2030”, which is a seven-year forward planning programme. I do not think that is the proper way to approach this. The DAA needs a much more long-term plan for Dublin Airport. The DAA’s application next year to increase from 32 million to 40 million is going to take a minimum of two or three years to get through the process, and it will then be into a five-year plan for the remainder. We need to have a serious look at long-term planning.

We have read a lot and heard a lot about the bank of land that is available. Mr. Jacobs might explain exactly where that rests or where the DAA rests in regard to the purchase of that. It makes obvious sense to anyone looking in from the outside that this land bank should be purchased and held by the DAA for further expansion. I am certain that with the explosion in aviation travel, the 40 million is going to be reached rather quickly but we have no forward planning for the years ahead.

There are some other issues that I have raised previously. First, car parking is a massive issue at Dublin Airport. People come up from the country to travel and they cannot get a space at the airport and are expected to park in the city centre, with all the cost of that, and to then get from the city or the surrounding area to the airport. People resent that.

A second issue is hotel accommodation. I turned the sod for the Great Southern Hotel, which is now the Radisson Hotel, in 1995, which tells us how long ago it is. I do not understand why the DAA is not interested in looking after its consumers by way of ensuring that hotel accommodation is available.

The DAA has the land out there. If it is not going to build a hotel, which I can understand because that is not the business it is in, and lease it, or else provide the grounds for an operator to come in and build and own the hotel, it needs to do something about accommodation. It is a serious issue. It is fine for us living in Ireland because we understand it, but when visitors come to Ireland, the first thing they say when they arrive is that there is no rail link or metro to the airport. As for looking for a bus, you would not want to be waiting in the rain for it. Mr. Jacobs mentioned earlier that there needs to be a far higher frequency of buses from the city to the airport, and there need to be far more taxies at the airport. Likewise, buses need to run all night long. The image of Ireland is tarnished every time people have a bad experience at Dublin Airport, and they are having bad experiences there. It is all within our control if we just do something about it and take causative action on it.