Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair. I know the committee has a lot of agencies and bodies to deal with. I am grateful that the Chair specifically has taken the time to call in Mr. Jacobs, because it is important.

I appreciate Mr. Jacobs has been here a long time, as I said from the outset. My view is simple. The DAA is a semi-State commercial agency. It is answerable to the Department of Transport. Here is part of my problem in this instance. Let us roll forward to 31 December at 11.59 p.m. and pretend we are sitting in one of the nice lounges in Dublin Airport. The difficulty I have is that the DAA's interpretation may potentially, as in 2019, lead to a breach of that 32 million passenger cap. We never got to determine whether that was a factual breach, but it published on the DAA website as we speak as 32.8 million or 32.9 million. We know the planning cap was breached then. On this occasion, my difficulty is that those extra passengers and flights have an impact. I am a public representative, currently representing St. Margaret's, Portmarnock, Swords and Malahide in equal measure - at least I will be until the redraw happens. I have to advocate for them, and they are telling me they have a problem with the volume of flights. That volume is clearly linked to passenger numbers. If we are growing in an unfettered manner at Dublin Airport, while ignoring or interpreting the planning law, that is a difficulty public representatives and the public are feeling. I do not know where that leaves us. I really do not. I do not want the committee to call Mr. Jacobs back at the end of January when he sends the economics focused press release showing how successful they have been. That is great. It is wonderful, but there is a consequence and there has to be a reckoning. Planning law should not be broken, especially not by a commercial semi-State agency.