Mr. Eoin Kealy:

I thank the committee for its time. As Mr. O’Leary has said, we have identified two legislative solutions the Government can act on right away to fix this cap. The quickest, easiest and most efficient solution to this is for the Minister for Transport to now table emergency legislation to amend the Planning and Development Act to scrap the passenger cap. He could do this right away. Now is the perfect time because a planning and development Bill is before the Dáil. More than 800 amendments have been tabled to the planning and development Bill. They could add one more now and I understand it is being pushed very quickly through the Dáil. They could add one more amendment to scrap the cap and get the Bill passed. Now is actually the perfect time.

The second option - and this can be pursued at the same time - is for the Minister of housing and local government to use the Planning and Development (Strategic Infrastructure) Act 2006 to designate airports as strategic infrastructure. He can issue a ministerial direction to An Bord Pleanála to scrap the passenger cap. We know this issue will come before An Bord Pleanála at some point, so it is best to issue the direction now so that when An Bord Pleanála gets this on its desk it can right away. As soon as it hits its desk, it can scrap the cap. Those are two immediate solutions the Government can pursue at this point.