Mr. Liam Scollan:

Mr. Gilmore put it very well. We have had very successful audits with the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and various aviation experts. With regard to the Department, the technical operation of the airport could not have been better over the years. Since May 2011 we have had successive strategic meetings. On eight occasions I have met an assistant secretary general at the Department and had eight other substantive conversations on this issue. This is at the core of the issue, because at one stage the Taoiseach felt it was important for high-level dialogue to take place involving the Department and we did this.

At these meetings we made proposals and explained what we are explaining at today's meeting. We exhausted this process on 5 July. After the meeting with the Minister when he rejected the financial proposals referred to by Senator Mooney we asked whether we could do the same as Shannon Airport whereby the Government would hire international experts - such as Booz and Company which worked with Shannon Airport - to work with the airport to come up with a strategic international plan. After all, we run an airport and we are not international investors. The Minister stated he would convey this to the Secretary General of the Department. We had further meetings after 5 July with the assistant secretary general for aviation in the Department and his team. We found this other proposal was not forthcoming. It had not been adopted or accepted. We had two if not three meetings with the Department, and by September we realised we had exhausted every possible attempt to engage strategically with the Minister and the Department.

At this stage we reluctantly took the decision to go public. We only went public on this because we realised an announcement was going to be made and that the Government would go ahead with it. We do not usually do our lobbying in the public arena; for the past ten years we have worked with the Government in a business-like fashion. We have never made public statements against Government policy. We have been forced into this and we are very regretful because we prefer to co-operate with the Government and the Department and we have had an excellent relationship with the Department over the years. We would prefer if the Government set Knock and Shannon airports on a level playing field and then told us to co-operate. A member of the committee was a very good international runner in the 1,500 m. Knock and Shannon airports are being asked to compete with each other in a 1,500 m race where Shannon Airport has been given a 500 m start.