The Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, will this week put advertisements in the national and international media, inviting proposals for a second terminal at Dublin Airport. It is a move which would end Aer Rianta's monopoly and - the Government hopes - provide a significant long-term boost to tourism and to business.
The previous government had resisted pressure to sanction a second terminal, but now Mr Brennan has indicated that he is keen to push ahead. In developing this proposal - and in overseeing the future of Aer Rianta - it is vitally important that the Government is operating from clear policy principles. The overriding priority is to provide first-class facilities which can cater for the number of passengers who now use the airport and, by providing the cheapest and most efficient facility for airlines, to foster the development of new routes and increased travel on existing ones.
Cheap and efficient air access is vital for the economy. Some 14 million people now use the airport each year and, according to some forecasts, this number could double over the next 20 years or so. Tourism depends on it and so does the efforts of IDA Ireland to attract overseas industries. As with much of our infrastructure, the airport facilities have failed to keep pace with the rapid growth of recent years; the result has been crowding and delays and arguments by airlines - particularly Ryanair - that charges in Dublin are discouraging the opening of new routes.
The Government has already pushed Aer Rianta into developing a new low-cost facility at the airport - Pier D - which is designed to provide new capacity in the short term. Meanwhile Aer Rianta is fighting a ruling by the airports regulator, Mr Bill Prasifka, who has not approved its long-term investment proposals at the airport and the charges they would entail.
Against this backdrop, the examination of a second terminal operated by a private company seems timely. Competition has already benefited consumers in many areas such as airline travel and telecommunications and there are many aspects of service to air travellers which could be improved in a competitive environment. Also, there is an urgent need now to get on with expanding capacity at Dublin airport, at a time when the State is running low on funds; some kind of arrangement involving the private sector could allow a new terminal to be up and running more quickly than if it was fully funded by the exchequer.
That said, the Government needs to ensure that it gets the desired result. Whatever private operator develops the terminal will need to be able to see the possibility of a profit for itself, in time. However it must be clear from the start that this profit is achievable by charging relatively low costs to the airlines who use the facility. In today's competitive airline market, a high-cost facility would quickly become a white elephant. Also, the Government must act quickly to ensure better transport links to Dublin airport, probably through its scheme for a Metro.