Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

In line with the commitments in the programme for Government, the Government announced a three-pronged strategy to encourage in-bound tourism as part of the jobs initiative. The first element is the proposed suspension of the air travel tax, the second is a new growth incentive scheme which has been introduced by the Dublin Airport Authority applying to all of the three airports under its remit and the third is more targeted and co-operative marketing of new routes from key source tourism markets by Tourism Ireland, the DAA and airlines to encourage more tourists to fly into Ireland.

My officials and I have engaged with the Dublin Airport Authority and with the four main Irish airlines about these initiatives and I wrote to all of the other airlines operating services to and from the State airports. Some proposals for additional capacity and new routes put forward are being examined by my Department and by external consultants to assess their potential impact. I await the outcome of that assessment and responses from other airlines before making a recommendation to my Cabinet colleagues on whether to suspend the tax. The recent enactment of the Finance (No. 2) Act 2011 has provided that basis for the suspension of the air travel tax if we decide to do so.

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