Pat Carey (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

Yes. All Irish departures to locations such as Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow will be subject to the €2 charge. Airline operators are liable to pay the tax. Detailed arrangements for the collection of the air travel tax will be contained in regulations to be made by the Revenue Commissioners.

Ireland is not unique in introducing an air travel tax. The UK, France and the Netherlands all apply air travel taxes, while countries further afield such as Australia and New Zealand also operate a departure tax. Air travel tax will not apply in the case of an aircraft carrying fewer than 20 passengers. Therefore, it does not apply to flights to or from the Irish offshore islands. Planes used for these flights would have a maximum passenger capacity of eight or nine.

The following persons are exempt from the tax: members of the aircraft crew, including any relief crew; a child under the age of two who does not occupy a seat on the aircraft; a disabled person and one person accompanying the disabled person for the purposes of providing care and assistance; and transit and transfer passengers. The exemption for disabled persons applies where the disabled person had requested and availed of assistance from the airline in accordance with EU Regulation 1107 of 2006, which concerns the rights of disabled persons or persons with reduced mobility when travelling by air. A transit passenger means a passenger who is on board an aircraft which lands at an airport in the course of its journey, and who continues his or her journey on that aircraft. A transfer passenger means a passenger who arrives on a flight to an airport and who leaves on another flight other than to the airport where the passenger's journey started, where both flights are part of a single booking and there is not more than six hours between the scheduled time of arrival of the first flight, and the scheduled time of departure of the second flight.

The amount to be raised by this measure is €148 million in a full year.