Madam, - Paul Sweeney, the business and economic adviser to SIPTU (Opinion, July 16th),completely misses the point about the performance of Aer Rianta. As a fairly regular traveller who uses many airports, I am saddened that Dublin Airport ranks so far down the list on so many fronts - car parking, food and trolley costs, for example.
Mr Sweeney makes a repeated issue of the loss of "economies of scale and scope" but it is patently obvious that breaking up any monopoly will affect so-called "economies of scale".
The questions he should be addressing are: What is the benefit to the taxpayer/traveller if Aer Rianta is to maintain these economies of scale and scope? Are we really better off because Aer Rianta own the hotels? If the experiences of travellers at Dublin Airport in the past decade are anything to go by, the answer is definitely not.
On the issue of how fantastic a return the taxpayer is getting on the Aer Rianta investment - once again the same point is missed. A "great return to the taxpayer" would mean making Irish airports real world leaders in terms of both the efficiency and the quality of the facilities supplied to the customer. Only then will it warm our hearts to hear that we taxpayers are the proud shareholders of what Mr Sweeney describes as a "world-leading airport management company which is the 30th largest indigenously based multinational".
Most observers would agree that the Government has not set out a consistent and clear strategy for Aer Rianta over the years. However, now that there is a Minister who is willing to put some effort into shaking things up a little the unions will have to do better than hark back to the old days with arguments that are anti-competition simply to justify the status quo. The raison d'être of Aer Rianta is to provide the best possible airport services for the travelling public. To this end there is an awful lot of room for improvement.
Taxpayers and travellers expect and deserve better. - Yours, etc.,
DAVE HAMMOND, Abbey Drive, Navan Road, Dublin 7.