RYANAIR HAS given no indication of the increases in tourist numbers it would provide if the €10 travel tax was to be scrapped, Minister for Tourism Mary Hanafin has told the Dáil.

On Tuesday Ms Hanafin told the Fáilte Ireland annual conference abolition of the controversial tax was “up for consideration”. She repeated calls in the Dáil last month for Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary to say what he would do if the tax was removed.

Mr O’Leary had said that if the tax was scrapped he could bring six million extra tourists to Ireland over a five-year period, and increase employment by 6,000.

The airline now says removing the tax is not sufficient, and a reduction in costs at Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports is required, along with a reversal of the Dublin Airport Authority’s 40 per cent price increase at Dublin airport.

In the Dáil yesterday the Minister said “Ryanair has indicated what it would provide if the travel tax and the increased charges at Dublin airport, Shannon airport and Cork airport were reversed, but has not indicated what it would provide if only the travel tax was involved.”

She told Fine Gael spokesman Jimmy Deenihan she had asked the airlines “to indicate to me what they could give me in return for the removal of the tax”.

Ms Hanafin said the €80 million the tax was expected to bring in this year would be hard to replace.