Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

When the task force met, the various State agencies were tasked with trying to assess the economic aspects of the closure of airports owing to volcanic ash and that work is still ongoing. In the reply I said that Aer Lingus and Ryanair have estimated their losses from the crisis to be €5 million and €6 million respectively per day. I recollect that the airport authority mentioned losses of approximately €8 million over the course of the previous closedown. On that aspect alone the losses total approximately €85 million or €90 million. From a tourism point of view, obviously, there is a loss of incoming passengers. However, I suppose that is somewhat counteracted by some people having to stay longer than they intended and some Irish people who had planned to travel abroad staying at home and probably making some other arrangements. That kind of sum needs to be done.

On giving compensation, the Deputy knows the current state of our finances. He has proposed to add a further €140 million to that. Would he like to make some proposals as to what expenditure we might cut to eliminate the air tax-----

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