Mr. Michael O'Leary:

With due respect to the Fingal Deputies, there is an issue with noise in Dublin Airport. I fully agree with Deputy Smith that DAA has not handled the local residents well over many years, but what is missed sometimes when there is a debate on the airwaves about the noise and residents around Dublin Airport is the restaurants, hotels and all the tourism jobs that are created and sustained by bringing in additional visitors. We cannot stop growing. Our Minister for Transport loves to say we need a climate solution. In the immediate term, we need jobs. New hotels are being opened and new leisure facilities are being developed. We need to keep growing. We are an island on the periphery of Europe. Europe loves taxing air travel. The people who suffer most from that are those who take short-haul flights to the peripheral countries of Europe, including Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Malta and Cyprus. Thankfully, the Italians have now said they will veto any more environmental taxes. I have yet to hear the Irish Government say it will veto any more environmental taxes on aviation. It is fine for the Dutch, Belgians and Germans, who live at the centre of Europe and have alternatives, including motorways and trains, but if you live in Ireland, you do not have those alternatives for access.

One of our proudest associations in Ryanair is that we sponsor the European Erasmus programme. We give discounted flights to about 70,000 students. One of the great successes of Europe has been the educational programme for Erasmus students. One of the tragedies of Brexit, apart from the economic catastrophe it has been in the UK, is that English students are now cut off from Erasmus and vice versa. The way forward in Europe is low-fare air travel, encouraging our young people to travel all over Europe for leisure and study, and to increasingly integrate and break down barriers between the nations of Europe.