Madam, - Ryanair recently highlighted the abject failure of the Commissioner of Aviation Regulation over the last three years to do anything to reduce charges at the Aer Rianta semi-state monopoly. This is despite his original determination in 2002 that Dublin Airport was "50 per cent more inefficient than the best of its peers".
The whole point of having a regulator at all is to replicate the effects of competition where none exists. Competition reduces costs and improves services, but sadly this aviation regulator has failed to do either.
Three years of doing nothing of course comes at a price.
The regulator's costs have almost doubled from €1.95 million in 2002 to over €3.6 million in 2004.
As a public servant, paid for by Irish taxpayers, the aviation regulator is in breach of Section 27 (3) of the Aviation Regulation Act which required the regulator to "ensure its own costs of operation are kept to a minimum and are not excessive".
Isn't it time the Government replaced this inefficient civil service quango with real airport competition? - Yours, etc.,
PAUL FITZSIMMONS, Head of Communications, Ryanair, Dublin Airport, Co Dublin.