Mr. Kenny Jacobs:

I thank the Senator. I have identified four issues. I will answer the first matter he asked about the condition of the site and I will ask Mr. Harrison to respond to the questions on cargo and capacity. I will take the committee through some of the things DAA wants to do on the experience the passenger has going through Dublin Airport. I will speak about the security piece and time and motion studies.

On competition, I agree Ireland needs a broader national aviation policy which should cover Dublin, the regions, regulation, who is involved, growth, sustainability and all those key matters. Everyone should want that in so that we can stand back and say what kind of aviation we want. We are great at it. We have great airlines, airports and heritage and play an incredible role in the leasing industry in the world and everyone should be proud. The Irish lead. Our middle eastern business partners say that the Irish are the best at this in the world. That is great. We must have a national aviation policy on the island.

Speaking on behalf of the DAA and having worked on the airline side, competition is great and it is needed. The competition is between the regions. I am from Cork. I am based in Cork Airport. I have often used Shannon Airport in the past. The competition is between the regional airports in Cork, Shannon, Knock and Kerry. They have always competed and it is a good healthy competition. The big international hubs are Dublin Airport's competition. An airline does not look at a route such as Dublin to Lanzarote and ask whether it will move it to Cork or Shannon. Those routes will be added if they make sense and if the load factor and the right economic return the airline wants is available. Airlines do not consider whether to put the route in Dublin or in other places. They will consider a good bit of healthy competition between Cork, Shannon, Kerry and Knock airports and they will do what they do as airlines. That is a question for them. Competition is a good thing. We want healthy competition. It happens at a regional level for the airlines and then consider the big international hubs.