Daily parking charges at Dublin airport have been increased by 50 per cent in an effort to stop travellers using the short-term car-park for overnight or longer stays.
The daily charge for use of the short-term car-park, located close to the airport terminal, rose from €20 to €30 yesterday. The hourly rate has been increased from €2.50 to €2.70.
"The reason behind it is to deter people from parking in the short-term car-park for long stays, it's really just for people who are going in and out of the airport to meet and greet, but what's happening is they find there is no room the spaces are all taken up," a spokeswoman for the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) said.
The daily rate for the long-term car-park has been increased from €7.50 to €8.
"A huge portion of Irish people bring their cars to the airport compared to other countries, and the fact that we don't have a rail link is probably the main reason for that. But the number of people using the airport is increasing - we estimate there will be 18.2 million passengers this year, so we need to encourage people to use the long-term parking," the authority spokeswoman said.
Ryanair accused the Taoiseach of "treating all passengers at Dublin airport as fools, by allowing his favourite monopoly the DAA to increase car-parking charges by 50 per cent".
Chief executive Michael O'Leary said the increased charges were "nothing short of daylight robbery of Irish consumers".
"It is time Bertie Ahern stopped treating Irish consumers as fools and honoured his promise to deliver a competing independent terminal at Dublin airport, because competition is the only way to prevent price gouging monopolies like the DAA from jacking up charges by 50 per cent and treating Irish passengers like fools every day not just on April Fools' Day".
