Dublin Airport has rejected calls for short-term parking price caps amid fears holidaymakers could face "spiralling costs" this summer.
It comes after Fine Gael Senator Emer Currie called for prices to be controlled to protect passengers.
"My understanding is that car parking at the airport is significantly reduced at the moment," she told Newstalk Breakfast.
"We're looking at a 23% reduction on what it normally is - but the DAA currently run an operating model for car parking prices based on yield management where demand affects the price.
"We saw this last summer where, in some cases, the prices doubled for car parking.
"My question is how are consumers going to be protected by spiralling costs this year?"
'Prioritising expensive charges'
Senator Currie said Dublin prices are significantly higher than those at other airports.
"We're looking at the long-stay car parks, where they are the most reasonably charged," she said.
"They're still extremely expensive compared to other airport car parking in Ireland.
"You're looking at, potentially, €82 for a stay in the short-term car park for a weekend".
She also claimed the operator is pushing out higher charges to people first.
"DAA are prioritising the more expensive charges on their website," she said.
"When you go the website, you automatically get the most expensive price first.
"So, we can see where their priorities are."
'Dynamic pricing'
DAA spokesman Graeme McQueen said the airport parking model works on a supply and demand scale.
"We operate a dynamic pricing model and that ensures that we can control the demand for the spaces," he said.
"We have a limited number of spaces; there's high demand for that. We want to make sure that anyone who really has to park at Dublin Airport is able to do that.
"That pricing mechanism allows us to do that".
Mr McQueen said any cap on parking charges would mean less choice for people.
"We have that cap [on long-term car parks], it's €15 a day," he said.
"But if we were to do what the Senator is asking us to do, and bring down the prices, all that would happen there is that the car parks would be booked up quicker and there would be no space at all for those people who do need to park at Dublin Airport this summer," he added.
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