The Irish government is no longer planning to scrap its controversial €3 air tax.
It had been planning to stop charging passengers the levy for flying from Ireland’s airports by October.
However, according to the latest reports, the Irish government has not seen enough commitment from airlines to make scrapping the tax viable.
Speaking to ABTN in June, Leo Varadkar, the minister for tourism in Ireland, said any move to cancel the levy was “conditional” on airlines bringing in more passengers.
“We decided that it wasn’t a good idea to tax people to come in and out of an island,” he said at the time.
However, “what we’re looking for from the airline is a bit of quid pro quo,” said the tourism minister.
“We’re not going to just reduce the tax if they won’t help us in increasing capacity and increasing routes that were cut during the recession.”
The move to keep the €3 tax has been met with scorn by Irish airline Ryanair.
Stephen McNamara, a spokesman for the low cost carrier, said: “Ryanair will continue to work with Minister Varadkar to persuade him that the blockage to tourism and jobs growth in Ireland is the travel tax and the DAA’s high airport fees.”
The Department of Transport’s claim that it could not secure solid commitments from airlines on inbound routes or capacity is “untrue”, he added.
“Ryanair submitted a solid commitment to deliver up to 5 million additional passengers per annum over a five year period, which would create up to 5,000 new jobs at the main Irish airports.”