Madam, - David Kelly (May 2nd) poses a question which you consider worthy of publishing, but which nobody has rushed to answer: who should pay for the expansion of Dublin Airport? Mind you, his opening premise seems a bit naive in that he seems to think a manufacturer does not price his products to cover capital as well as operating costs (plus a good margin for profit as well). Why should airports be different?
In the "old days" Dublin Airport was a major public utility providing an essential ingredient in our growing trade and tourist industries. As a result, its capital cost was at least in part provided by the State, i.e. the taxpayer. Times have changed: the airport now provides a means through which its customers - airlines, catering companies, shops, etc - make their profits and some people become very rich. Why shouldn't these customers - and indirectly their customers, the people who use their products - not pay the full cost of providing this facility, including the cost of expansion?
Given that the charges at Dublin Airport are among the lowest in Europe and that vast profits have not been accumulated to cover expansion, I don't need a degree in economics to know that the cost of any expansion must be paid for either by us taxpayers as the owners, or by the aforesaid customers by an increase in charges.
If I were a manufacturer I would know who would pay for an expansion to my plant; as a (part) airport owner I think I know who should pay for its expansion.
Sorry, Mr Kelly, I have had to use words of more than one syllable. - Yours, etc,
W.J. MURPHY, Malahide, Co Dublin.