A couple of Euro may not sound like much but I'd imagine leisure passengers are far more price sensitive than business passengers. I agree with you pee that it is hard to imagine the imposition of such a tax been the real reason for capacity reduction and now that it has been reversed is Ryanair's promise of 1 million extra pax a year realistic.
When the tax was introduced, Ryanair were not the only airline in Ireland to shout from the rafters. Aer Lingus and City Jet sang along too. If Ryanair are right and we see an uplift in numbers then it will demonstrate the futility of such a tax and that may be an advantage to other countries who argue the same point.
You have got to be joking. A couple of years ago, after the volcano fiasco and RYR claimed to have a cost of €60m, they introduced a €2 EU261 charge/tax for such catastrophes. That was 3 years ago and at 70m pax pa that = €140m per year, and there have not been too many major catastrophes; so RYR have imposed their own travel tax. Not to mention the increase in so many other charges on top of...on top of.. Hypocrisy comes to mind. What's new?