Mr. Michael O'Leary:

That is one more for the electorate. The Minister has a difficult portfolio. He is the Minister for Transport as well as communications and energy and I think his interests lie elsewhere, other than in transport. Therefore, transport is not a high priority. We have, over many years, dealt with Ministers of different hues. The current Minister could do more to resolve these transport issues but I would not just blame him alone. He and the Government need to take action on the traffic cap in Dublin Airport. We need an interim solution while the planning process plays out. The planning application is going to take three or four years to resolve. I have no doubt that the cap will be lifted but lifting a cap from 32 million to 40 million is not the future, as the Leas-Chathaoirleach rightly pointed out. If we lift the cap from 32 million to 40 million we will be at 40 million within about two years and will be back again. We need no cap. We have two runways at Dublin Airport. We have runway and terminal capacity for about 60 million passengers and that would take between ten and 20 years of growth. We would not have to worry about planning although we do have to be sensitive to noise issues. This growth will take place on new, much quieter aircraft. Dublin Airport needs to do more to bring the local residents with it. We will create many thousands of new jobs at Dublin Airport and many more residents and voters in the Fingal constituency as a result as well. There are lots of upsides to this. We should not be dealing with a planning issue when we already have planning approval for infrastructure that allows the airport to grow to 60 million passengers.