The majority of money that the IAA make comes from Ryanair.
Sorry, while I have no sympathy for FR in this case, in relation to this specific point ONLY, the above allegation is WRONG, very WRONG.
In passing, it's one of the reasons why IAA don't do anything like as much supervision of the airlines as would be useful and helpful, they don't have the manpower or the resources to do it.
The last time they published the figures, the 2004 annual report, 79% of the income of the IAA came from overflights, and the control of them.
The same report states that 6.5% of income came from oversight and safety regulation of airlines and operations.
In the scale of things, as far as ANY of the airlines in Ireland are concerned, it's VERY small fry indeed compared to the money they get from ATC operation.
There's the root of the problem, there are very few people, and very little real experience on the ground in dealing with regulatory issues, made worse by some of the IAA being ex Air corps, with little or no real commercial operating experience.
It's not likely to change in a hurry, given the complete mess that is JAA/EASA at the moment.