Vol. 507 No. 2
14 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Public Enterprise her policy on charges at Irish airports; and if her attention has been drawn to criticisms from Ryanair which has been seeking lower landing fees, particularly at Dublin Airport and which instead is faced with a proposal to double the landing fees over the next two years. [16518/99]
The appointment of a regulator is the best way of dealing with the economic regulation of airports and, in particular, airport charges. In that regard, I intend shortly to seek Government approval for the drafting of legislation to establish a regulator.
Provided that the required legislation is in place, I intend to have the regulator appointed and statutorily empowered before the end of this year. As regards landing fees, I am very much aware that the level of airport charges has financial implications for both the airlines and for Aer Rianta in particular.
Any decision on the future level of landing fees will be taken by the regulator, following his or her appointment, after taking full account of the interests of the travelling public, the airlines and the airports' revenue needs. I am in discussions, as of today, with the chairman of the board with regard to the discounts which are due to be abolished on Thursday, 1 July. This evening and tomorrow I will take part in discussions.
Will the Minister accept that charges will go up either by lifting the charges or withdrawing the discounts? If a decision is made to appoint a regulator, will the Minister confirm to the House now that there will not be a change in the existing level of charges pending the appointment of the regulator?
I am in the middle of discussions with the chairman of Aer Rianta about that matter and until I have completed those discussions it would be wrong of me —
Is it the Minister's objective to achieve the end result I have outlined, that there would be a moratorium on charges and that there would not be any no change in the present structure until such time as the regulator is appointed?
That is my objective but the matter remains to be discussed finally with the chairman of Aer Rianta.
Is the Minister telling the House that again she is kicking to touch on this matter—
No.
—and that she intends to do nothing that might have any political implications for herself or the Government until a regulator is appointed? When is it expected that the regulator will be appointed?
A regulator was set up by the Government of which the Deputy was a member.
Is the Minister aware that the operators at Dublin Airport, namely the airline companies, would much prefer to deal with a Minister and a Government as the regulator than some ice-cold bureaucrat who would not take account of any of the normal things that Ministers are expected to take into account of when making decisions about charges?
This is a red hot Minister talking. I do not know about regulators being ice-cold. The previous Government introduced Etain Doyle as the regulator for telecommunications. It is good practice to have a regulator for charges. To reply to Deputy O'Keeffe, it is my objective that the discounts to be erased on 1 July should not be erased until the end of the year so that there will be time for the regulatory regime to be in place.
If that is the Minister's objective, is she saying that in her discussions this afternoon and tomorrow she will tell the chairman she does not want the charges raised until the regulator has had a chance to examine what the charges should be? If so, will she say to the chairman that she will be prepared to cover the costs that Aer Rianta will lose if it does not increase its charges? It maintains that because of the loss of duty free sales it can no longer give out discounts. Will the Minister be prepared to make up the difference if it does not increase its charges?
Most definitely not because Aer Rianta is making a profit. The Deputy must be aware of that.
I know that.
It is a very good company. The Deputy cannot have it every way and also propose a moratorium. What I will put to the chairman is that for the remainder of this year, until 31 December, there would be a moratorium on the 25 per cent. One would need to be Einstein, and even he would have difficulty, to understand the convoluted array of discounts, rebates and so on. By the end of the year the 25 per cent will be of benefit to all airlines, Aer Lingus, Ryanair, CityJet etc., and they will stay in place until 31 December 1999. By then the regulator will be in place.
I had indicated I wished to ask a question.
Question Time concludes at 4.15 p.m.
Written Answers follow Adjournment Debate.
