Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I raise the shambles that is going on at Dublin Airport because there is not enough car parking in the short term. For our national airport to advise passengers to get lifts from friends is something I do not think I have ever heard before. If it is bad now, it will be bedlam during the summer. This is not about increasing the car parking spaces at Dublin Airport; this is because there is a car park that has 6,000 spaces but which is closed. One fifth of car parking spaces are not available. The Dublin Airport Authority, DAA, is trying to purchase that car park but it is under review by the CCPC, the consumer watchdog. That is fine but what is not fine is that this squeeze and shortage will have such a detrimental impact on passengers, because of headaches and hassle, and consumers, because of escalating prices for the car parking that is there.What is not fine is that this is an issue that has been well flagged for a year now. The Dublin Airport Authority, DAA, is telling us that it cannot do any more without ministerial intervention and it cannot lease the 6,000 car parking spaces in the interim. The Minister for Transport seems to be turning a blind eye to this. He is not minded to get involved to run communications campaigns. Connectivity to our national airport is a national issue. The following are some options that I have. Can the 6,000 car parking spaces be leased in the interim while that decision is being made by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC? Can we look at temporary options in the vicinity of the airport? Can the Minister get onto the National Transport Authority, NTA, about introducing new bus routes that are planned under BusConnects and to manage the spiral costs that consumers will have to pay this summer at the airport?