Noel Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

As regards the Deputy's first question about value for money, the cost of the terminal two building is just over €300 million. The figure of just over €600 million that he quoted relates to ancillary services and buildings that were provided at the airport prior to T2 arriving on the scene at all. I regard it as value for money. The Deputy rightly and fairly has indicated that this decision was made in 2005 or thereabouts when passenger figures were increasing exponentially at Dublin Airport, and indeed at the other airports around the country. The projections at that stage, before any economic downturn, indicated that the terminal was needed.

I can remember that in my predecessor's time at every Question Time there were at least one or two questions about the delays at Dublin Airport, and about getting through security, as well as the delays being faced by people when collecting their baggage on returning from holidays and so on. There was no question that there was a need to put new facilities in place, and they will be there, as in fairness, the Deputy has acknowledged.

As regards competition in airports in Ireland, the Deputy will be aware that the State Airports Act was put in place in 2004 to separate the three main airports, to allow them to compete. Due to the downturn in the aviation sector in 2008-09, the airports requested me to defer a final decision on that until next year, which I will do. In light of the situation next year, depending on passenger numbers etc., we shall review that in consultation with the airports.

See this speech in context