Mr. Kenny Jacobs:

There are four parts to that. At the start, I will talk about the correlation between the price cap and the price of an air ticket, and I will also deal with the point on security and the 240 staff needed. Mr. Harrison will answer the question on the secondary hub and Ms Gubbins will give an update on the financial aspects.

Simply put, having worked on the airline side and now being on the airport side, I know how airlines look at it. Last summer, for example, airfares from Dublin were up significantly, with a figure of 40% for all of Europe. Any one of our airline customers flying out of Dublin last year paid a much higher airfare. That is while prices were down. The price that the airlines paid went down and the price that the customers paid went up. There is no correlation at all, as I note from having been on the other side. We have no ambition to have the average EU airport price. I cannot name one airport across Europe that charges airlines an amount as low as we charge, and I have worked in the airline industry. No European capital is comparable. We have no ambition to be a Heathrow. Forget about its pricing and that of Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. Capital city airports such as Lisbon, Madrid, Vienna and Rome are charging airlines significantly more, and always have. We do not want to get to the average EU price, and there is no correlation in respect of us putting up the price. We want to stay really low on price. If the price cap goes up, it does not mean the travelling public will pay higher airfares. I know that from having worked on the airline side. Airline fares go up and down based on supply and demand and the load factor the airlines want to achieve. Airlines can make more money and fares can go down in airports with higher prices than Dublin Airport. Therefore, there is no correlation, as I note from having worked on both sides of the fence.

On the point on security and the reference to the 240 staff needed, I draw the Deputy's attention to the period from 2023 to 2026. We are not against independent regulation and want a good relationship with the Commission for Aviation Regulation. We want its modelling process, specifically its inputs used, to be right. The commission has modelled that we will need 750 security staff at Dublin Airport between 2023 and 2026. Our modelling suggests we will need 1,000 in that three-year period. That is based on what we believe the airlines want to do and the number of people who will go through the terminals, namely, terminals 1 and 2. It is based on the C3 scanners we want to introduce at Dublin Airport, which will give passengers a better experience in that they will have to take less stuff out of their bags. Also, it is a question of building in resilience. Last summer was not a resilient summer for all in aviation. I have already said that there will be challenges this summer. Our job as a management team is to make sure those challenges do not exist at Dublin and Cork airports. However, to build in the resilience, we believe we will need 1,000 security staff from 2023 to 2026. The difference between the commission's figure, 750, and 1,000 is 250, or approximately the 240 mentioned.

Again, we are not against independent regulation and want to have a good relationship with the regulator. We will not agree on everything. We do not agree at the moment on what the price cap could be but it is a matter of what occurs if the price cap goes up. Again, it is really important to state we do not want to be at the average price of an EU capital city airport. We embrace having a low price because it is a good thing. That is not the case with everything in Ireland, but it will not result in airfares going up.

Mr. Harrison will talk about the secondary hub and Ms Gubbins will cover finances.