DAA “baffled” by decision to block purchase of Santry car park

DUBLIN Airport Authority has been blocked from buying a car park due to concerns it would lead to higher prices for consumers.

Daa wanted to buy the 6,200 space QuickPark site which is located on the Swords Road in Santry.

However, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) said the deal would give daa an effective monopoly over large car parks in the area.

It also said that could lead to higher prices and lower service quality for consumers.

The QuickPark site has been closed since the pandemic and daa said it needed to buy and reopen it to relieve congestion at its other sites.

The CCPC, who was notified of the proposed purchase in March 2023, carried out a preliminary investigation and concluded that a full investigation was needed before making a final decision.

During the investigation, the CCPC issued legal requests to the parties involved for further information and engaged with many third parties.

The CCPC received 18 submissions from third parties, 16 of which raised concerns about the purchase.

In December 2023, the CCPC issued its preliminary findings to daa and the owner of the site, explaining its concerns about how the deal could reduce competition for public car parking spaces near Dublin Airport. The parties responded to the CCPC in January.

The CCPC’s investigation found that the deal would substantially lessen competition in car parking serving Dublin Airport, as daa would own over 90% of the public car parking spaces if the purchase went ahead. As daa would not face competition for customers from any other large car park providers, this would have harmful consequences for consumers.

Brian McHugh, CCPC Chairperson, explained the reasons behind the decision to block the sale.

“Competition among businesses is vital to drive value, consumer choice and innovation,” he said.

“Our investigation found that this deal would eliminate daa’s only significant competitor for public car parking serving Dublin Airport and result in daa essentially having a near monopoly.

“This would be likely to lead to higher prices for consumers because daa would not have to compete to win car parking customers.”

In a statement, daa said it was “baffled” by CCPC’s decision.

“daa is disappointed by the CCPC’s decision to prevent daa from buying the former QuickPark parking facility.

“This decision is bad news for passengers who will face difficulty finding parking at the airport in the summer peak.

“daa is baffled by the CCPC view that daa buying the facility would have led to car park prices increasing: it would have the opposite effect, as is the norm in supply and demand economics.

“Permitting daa to operate the former QuickPark facility would have made 6,200 much-needed and currently idle parking spaces available to passengers once again, resulting in increased choice and lower prices for the travelling public.

“daa will review the CCPC’s decision and consider all options, including an appeal.”

A local councillor has also blasted the decision to block the purchase of the car park.

Fine Gael Councillor Tom O’Leary has slammed both the 18 month delay in arriving at a decision by the CCPC and their refusal to approve the purchase of the car park.

“This is a totally inefficient way to do business in Ireland regarding critical transport infrastructure,” he told Northside People.

“Six months should be a very adequate timeline to make a ruling on the purchase of a very important car park.

“It’s a car park how could it take 18 months to make a decision?”

Cllr O’Leary, who is chairperson of the Transport and Infrastructure Committee in Fingal County Council, explained how the unused car park could be brought back into service.

“I call on everyone involved, NAMA in particular, now to get this critical parking infrastructure put back out for sale via tender to find another independent buyer and get this idle empty car park opened as soon as possible,” he said.

“It can be opened in two weeks if a sale was agreed with a suitable independent operator.

“We may not get this car park open for the high season of 2024 but we should at least try.

“To be fair, Fingal County Council attempted to intervene with a temporary solution pending a sale and lease the car park on a short term lease to open it up immediately pending the conclusion of a sale to an independent buyer.

“This option needs to be considered again, there is an urgent need for car parking capacity to service Dublin Airport.

“I am chairperson of the Fingal Transport and Infrastructure Committee and I am acutely aware of the need to get this existing car park back into service again.

“There is a serious deficit of car parking at the airport and people using the airport are now parking long term in nearby housing estates which is impeding access to the residents of homes in the Swords and Santry area. We need the former Quikpark 6200 car park spaces opened as soon as possible.

“The airport is expanding rapidly currently at 32million passengers per annum and there is a formal planning application to increase the airport capacity to 40 million passengers.”