Mr. Michael O'Leary:

Members should say to him, "Last year, you were telling people, 'Our car parks are full. Please come by bus to the airport.' You own about 300 acres of land around the airport." We suggested this last year in the middle of the car parking crisis at Dublin Airport and it was kind of brushed off by him: "We are not running a country fair. We want our passengers to be parking on tarmac." Passengers would be quite happy to park in a field beside the airport during the months of June, July and August if that keeps car parking capacity rising and costs down. There is a kind of dismissive attitude of the DAA: "We are not running country fairs." Country fairs operate very successfully during the summer, when the ground is firm. If you have a real commitment to delivering for your passengers or creating car parking for your passengers, that is what you do. The DAA, however, has had 12 months from last summer to this summer to put some tarmac or 804 and dust on some of those fields. It already runs the bus services. There are already shuttles to and from the airport. It has sat on its hands doing nothing for the past year because it is secretly very happy to be able to increase the cost of car parking. It says, "There is nothing we can do here. It is all the competition authority's fault. It would not let us buy that other car park behind the hotel." Why did it not put some dust on its fields and create additional car parking that way?

As to what we would do at Dublin Airport, we would cancel the stupid tunnel that is going nowhere, open up some more car parks and keep the cost of car parking down, much the same way as we apply for extra flights at Christmas so we can keep the cost of flying at Christmas down. We would use the money that has been saved to expand terminals 1 and 2. Going through terminal 1, where Ryanair is the major airline, it is quite oppressive during the middle of the summer. There is not enough space there for people to sit down. I am sorry we are a victim of our own success. We are shovelling people through that building and it is quite unacceptable. There is a lack of toilet capacity and a lack of seating capacity and the retail offer is poor, yet the DAA sits on its hands waiting to spend €250 million on a tunnel to go to where the cargo planes are. As usual, we would say the DAA is pretty poor.

What should the Minister for Transport do? He should do one of two things: one, scrap the cap. I come back to Deputy Farrell's contribution. There would be more votes for this Government and certainly for the Minister for Transport - and I am not great fan of his - in being seen to take action to lift the cap and keep air fares down and traffic and jobs growth up at Dublin Airport than there would be in worrying about the appeal to An Bord Pleanála. Governments are there in the middle of a crisis to take action, and voters expect action to be taken. The new Taoiseach and the Government have got quite some kudos in recent weeks by being seen to take at least some action on tented villages on Mount Street and so on. I am not getting into the debate on immigration.

Government gets credit for taking action. It does not get credit for sitting around saying it is sorry but there is a planning issue and there is nothing it can do for the next four years. That is what I would do if I was Minister for Transport. If I was the Minister, I would have written back to Ryanair when we submitted a plan to him to grow traffic on and off this island by 50% over the next seven years. We handed him the plan at our meeting on 7 March. We are now close to the end of June and have heard nothing. Sadly, my experience of this Minister for Transport is that this tends to be his modus operandi. There is a lot of talk about solutions in 2050 but, when it comes to making decisions and taking action now, there is nothing.

To come back to the Leas-Chathaoirleach's last point as to whether there should be a terminal 3, we are largely indifferent. I have never been a great supporter of having a terminal 3 over on that side of the runway. There is more than sufficient space in terminal 1 and terminal 2. We have long campaigned and advocated for another proposal. The Leas-Chathaoirleach may know where we are located in terminal 1. We should be knocking down the hangars. To be fair to it, the DAA does have a plan to knock down those hangars on the north apron, that is, all of those hangars on your left-hand side as you drive out. That should be one long terminal building with lots more gates and lots more stands where we could park aircraft, which could then go straight out onto the north runway. We now have two runways. The terminal infrastructure could be expanded at very modest cost. What we do not need is to waste €250 million building a tunnel going nowhere to serve parcels when our primary objective should be to serve Irish people going abroad and visitors coming to this country.

To come back to another point, the Dublin metro will never be a solution for Dublin Airport. I have no issue with the Dublin metro if it is for the people of Swords, Fingal and Rush and if it is a DART going to and from the centre of town. However, the idea that the Dublin metro will do anything for Dublin Airport is a fantasy. Under the current plan for the Dublin metro, access in the centre of town has moved from St. Stephen's Green to Ranelagh. Nobody will be able to come to Ranelagh to get the Dublin metro to Dublin Airport because there will be nowhere to park in Ranelagh. The Dublin metro will not run at 4 a.m., which is what is needed to get passengers out to Dublin Airport for 5.30 a.m. to check in for 6.30 a.m. flights. It will do nothing for the airport. However, I employ a lot of people who live and work in Swords and I know that the people of Swords need better access to the centre of town. If the Dublin metro or a DART to Swords will solve that, I would be all in favour of it.