Donohoe intervention on airport charges a case of deja vu

Deja vu, history repeating itself, we've been here before . . . choose whichever cliche you like, because it has happened again. As the Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR) prepares to set Dublin Airport's passenger charge cap for the next five years, the incumbent minister has once more issued it with a statutory direction.

The commission wants to cut charges by 22 per cent to €8.35 a head over the next five years by vetoing €170 million of Dublin Airport Authority’s (DAA) proposed capital spending over that period. It plans to issue its final decision at the end of the month.

Earlier this week, Donohoe has intervened at more or less the same point in the long drawn-out consultation process as one of his predecessors, Noel Dempsey, who stepped into the last airport charges row in October 2009, shortly before the CAR was due to issue its final determination.

Comparing the key elements of the two directions shows that, in fact, they are much the same. Both list three areas of government policy that must be implemented, namely: Dublin’s role as an international gateway, the desirability that it should have the terminal and runway facilities needed to promote connections to and from key markets, and that the airport should be able operate commercially without Exchequer aid.

The only real difference is that Dempsey also wanted the regulator to ensure the airport had enough cash to build its second terminal, which has since been constructed.

The CAR is obliged to comply when a transport minister invokes his or her statutory power to direct it to do something. It reacted accordingly in 2009. Donohoe's letter to John Spicer, acting head of the commission, points out that previous directions, including those issued by Dempsey, still stand.

Assuming that’s the case, it throws a question mark over the need to issue one this time around, particularly given that both ultimately say the same thing.