Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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Question 589: To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the options for restoring air services that were discussed with the airline operators as part of the proposed agreement to abolish the €3 air travel tax; and the specific proposals that they put forward. [25992/11]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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In line with the commitments in the Programme for Government, I developed a comprehensive three-pronged strategy to encourage in-bound tourism and announced this as part of the Jobs Initiative in May. The first element was the proposed conditional suspension of the air travel tax, the second was a new growth incentive scheme which has been introduced by the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) applying to all of the three airports under its remit and the third was more targeted and co-operative marketing of new routes from key source tourism markets by Tourism Ireland, the DAA and airlines to encourage more tourists to fly into Ireland.

I made it clear from the outset that the proposed suspension of the travel tax would be contingent on a positive response to the initiative from the airlines in terms of restoring routes and capacity. My officials and I held discussions with Ryanair and Aer Lingus about what additional capacity the airlines would be prepared to deliver in return for the suspension of the tax and I also wrote to all of the scheduled airlines operating services to/from Ireland advising them of the Government's proposals and inviting them to engage with the Dublin Airport Authority to establish what new services they might introduce or reinstate taking advantage of the incentives on offer from the Government and DAA.

However, the response of the airlines was disappointing. I engaged independent consultants to examine the most significant proposals that were put forward, particularly from the point of view of their potential to increase inbound tourism. These proposals and the overall response of the airlines was not sufficient to persuade me to abolish the tax. I announced my decision in August and I said that I would look at the issue again early next year when I see the airlines proposed schedules for the summer 2012 season. With the agreement of the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure & Reform, half of the revenue that will be generated by not suspending the tax will be made available for a targeted co-operative marketing effort in conjunction with the airlines, airports, ferry companies, tour operators and others.