Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Boylan and I am glad that she agrees that we should be looking at emissions rather than passenger numbers and at emissions per capita. I will look to see whether I can get a good breakdown of general aviation so we are not mixing up private jets with medical flights, cargo and so on.

Much of this debate emerged with a provocative and noisy campaign by Ryanair saying it would like the Minister or the Department of Transport to intervene in planning conditions which it knew was not legal or possible to do. When I look at this kind of showmanship by Ryanair, I wonder why is it coming out with this kind of statement, why is it putting out these provocative and insulting statements rather than addressing the substantial issues as we are doing today. It is asking people to look at the left hand so they do not look at what the right hand is doing. The truth is that Ryanair presents itself as a low-fares airline. However, its fares went up 24% last year. When I looked at the cost of a flight to London or Paris this week, flying on 15 or 17 February, I see that Ryanair is €100 more expensive than its nearest rival for a flight to London and it is also more expensive to fly with Ryanair to Paris this week, than it is with other airlines.