Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

The Dublin Airport Authority, DAA, operates under a clear commercial mandate and its capital investment programme is entirely funded from its own internal resources with no Exchequer funding involved. Accordingly, decisions on the delay or cancellation of aviation projects fall within the responsibility of the management and board of the DAA. Following the announcement of its annual results for 2008, which saw a drop in group profit of 28% from 2007, the DAA has been reviewing all aspects of its business, with a particular focus on costs, including capital development and operational expenditure.

The DAA is well advanced in delivering a €1.28 billion investment programme to upgrade terminal and airfield facilities including Terminal 2. The DAA has reduced its investment plans at Dublin Airport for the 2010-14 period by about 50% to less than €400 million to take account of the current economic downturn. A number of major projects, including the planned new second runway and additional aircraft parking areas, will be deferred. These projects will be reactivated when appropriate circumstances dictate and these decisions should be made on the basis of the DAA's commercial assessment.

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