The Transport Minister, Ms Mary O'Rourke, is looking into a claim that the Bank of Ireland has a foreign exchange monopoly at Dublin Airport.
The allegation was made by Mr Shane Ross (Ind), who said he took exception to the fact that this was the only bank permitted to have such facilities there. A monopoly psychology had infiltrated the kind of people who ran the airport's authority, he believed.
"As a result, the Bank of Ireland, like Aer Rianta, fleeces tourists for as much as it can get out of them, because it has no competition in the airport.
"If there were competition, the margins between the buying and selling prices of foreign exchange at the airport would be immediately slashed."
Mr Ross was contributing to the debate on the Bill to authorise the authority to own the airport assets which it manages.
Complaining that the Minister was merely changing the authority's status from that of a State agency to a semi-state body, Mr Ross said she should have taken the view that Aer Rianta had served its purpose, was making an enormous amount of money, and was ripe for privatisation. Instead, Ms O'Rourke was introducing a new patient to the sanatorium of semi-state bodies.
Ms O'Rourke said she would have inquiries made about Mr Ross's claim.