I wish to raise a matter of local and national importance. Early this morning I attended a detailed briefing at Dublin Airport with the Dublin Airport Authority, DAA. Dublin Airport, as Senators will know, is a key national asset that employs approximately 20,000 people in over 100 companies. For each of the 20,000 jobs another nine jobs have been created indirectly. In total, there are nearly 200,000 people employed around north Dublin and in surrounding counties.

The airport has been a success story under the Fine Gael-led Governments as passenger numbers grew from 18 million in 2010 to approximately 32 million in 2019.

What about compensation?

The airport is key to tourism and foreign direct investment in Ireland. Recently Fingal County Council approved four master plans and is working on a fifth master plan that will bring 23,000 high-quality jobs to Swords and Fingal. Fingal and Ireland need Dublin Airport to work efficiently and deal with the upward trend in traffic there and facilitate these new jobs with many international companies and international trading companies.

The Commission for Aviation Regulation has approved €1.83 billion, or 93%, of the Dublin Airport investment plan. Recently we received the good news that the European Investment Bank will give us €350 million. The commission agrees that this work must be done. Indeed, all of the stakeholders and the people who work inside and outside the airport agree that this work must be done. I refer to groups such as Bord Fáilte, IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland.

The Commission for Aviation Regulation wants to reduce the existing passenger charge by 22%, or from €9.60 down to €7.50. Dublin Airport has one of the lowest passenger charges for a large airport category in Europe. The charge is the lowest of 11 airports with passenger numbers over 25 million. I note that Heathrow Airport charges €25 and the airport that serves Amsterdam charges €30. Dublin Airport has had a fixed charge for the last five years and there will be a flat fixed charge for the next five years with an investment plan of €1.83 billion. The DAA has not sought a price increase but wants to hold on to what it has. I want to make it clear that the proposed cut in the maximum passenger charge will lead to a downgrade of the DAA's credit rating and, therefore, put its business plan at risk. In addition, many of the projects will be stalled. I am very concerned that the proposed cut in the maximum passenger charge will put the business plans of the DAA out.

I hope the regulator will review the draft decision carefully, reconsider the submissions and the overall national context in which this airport operates. There is no guarantee that the proposed cut in airport charges will actually find its way to the passengers and it may end up on the airlines' balance sheets. Furthermore, if that cut were to result in more passengers passing through Dublin Airport, it would not have the infrastructure to deal with them.

Does the Commission for Aviation Regulation have the expertise to assess this situation in terms of its impact on the DAA's ability to borrow money internationally on the markets? My understanding is that this will damage that capacity considerably. I hope the commission will take a second look at this and take into consideration the concerns of all the stakeholders, including bodies such as Bord Fáilte, IDA, Enterprise Ireland, not to mention the 100 companies at the airport.

I believe that this process needs to be reviewed. The consultation process will close next week. With Brexit looming, it is critical that we do not create further uncertainty in an already uncertain time.