Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

I reassure Deputy Dooley that there will be an acting chief executive in place during the interregnum and the acting chief executive will have a great deal of experience of running airports. The chairman-designate stated that he believed the salary cap would inhibit the DAA in its search for a new chief executive but he made his position clear. He stated that the board and the chairman of the DAA would comply with Government policy, whatever the pay cap.

The Government has no plans to reconsider the pay cap although the point Deputy Dooley makes is valid. The chief executive is not paid by the Exchequer but by the DAA. The higher the salary, the higher the tax returned to the taxpayer, a point many people do not fathom.

The current chief executive is leaving. I am disappointed he is going because he has done a good job. He is leaving to run London City Airport, an airport with one ninth the number of passengers of the three State airports combined. He is leaving for a salary of £410,000 plus a bonus of between 55% and 95%. The chief executive of Manchester Airport, a similar sized airport to Dublin, receives a salary of £515,000 before a bonus. This is something we should bear in mind in this State. While many people in the State are paid more than their equivalents in other countries, this is not the case when it comes to the chief executive of the DAA.

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