Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 257: To ask the Minister for Finance the amount of revenue raised to date from the airport travel tax announced in budget 2009; the amount expected to be raised in a full year; if an assessment has been carried out of the expected impact on air passenger traffic; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33197/09]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the air travel tax arising from travel undertaken in any month is payable by the 23rd of the following month. The yields from the air travel tax received in the period from May to September 2009, in respect of travel undertaken during the months April to August 2009 are as follows:

It should be recognised that visitors will only be subject to the tax on their return air journey. The additional €10 or €2 in the context of a much larger purchasing decision involving total travel and accommodation costs should have an extremely limited effect on tourist numbers. I appreciate the airline industry continues to go through a difficult period. However, this difficult trading period arises primarily from weak world economic activity.

It should be noted that at present the decline in air travel is an international phenomenon and as a result aviation services are contracting on a global basis. Indeed the decline in the number of people travelling is also evident in those countries where there is no air travel tax in place.

The estimated yield from the air travel tax is €85m in 2009 and €125m in a full year.

We currently face significant financial challenges and the air travel tax is an important revenue raising measure. I tried to be as fair as possible in looking at areas for additional tax revenues. It is also worth noting that fuel used by commercial airlines is completely exempt from tax, so it's a sector that already has considerable preferential treatment.