Kapt K: I take issue with you at my peril, but...
What you are so keen to describe as "laissez faire" is in fact anything but. The PSO route thing is Government intervention in the form of subsidising otherwise commercially unviable routes. It may be socially justifiable, or it may be a waste of money, but laissez faire it most certainly is not.
If Irish aviation were entirely a matter of unfettered market forces, there would probably be one airport in the country. No prize for guessing.