Mr. Maurice O'Connor:

I thank the Chairman for his kind words and his invitation. I am assistant director of flight operations in the IAA and I have 38 years airline experience. My colleague, Mr. James Courtney, is manager of airline standards and he has 34 years experience in the airline business. Together, we have over 70 years experience collectively.

I will outline the framework for aviation regulatory oversight in Ireland and the responsibilities of the Irish Aviation Authority, IAA. The IAA is responsible for the safety regulation of the air operations of civilian aircraft in Ireland. We issue the air operator certificate, AOC, and the approvals to allow an airline to use its aircraft for commercial air transport. Our agency is completely separate from the Commission for Aviation Regulation, CAR, and it is important that the committee understands that. However, we interface with the CAR on certain issues before we issue approvals or licensing to establish that it has completed what it must do before an AOC is issued.

The IAA is a semi-State agency and our primary function is to regulate civil aviation in Ireland. We also provide the air traffic control services in Irish airspace. We have just under 700 highly qualified staff, such as pilots, aeronautical engineers, air traffic controllers and radio officers. We receive no funding for the primary functions we perform. Our role in safety oversight is to oversee aircraft, aviation personnel, airports and airspace. We also comply fully with the international and European standards set for aviation. We are ranked one of the best in the world by outside agencies in the safety oversight of civil aviation. I have included the International Civil Aviation Organization's chart, which shows the position the IAA has established. This position has been established by outside agencies; it is not our own assessment.

With regard to the role of the safety regulator in member states, the IAA's remit is to ensure that airlines comply with EU regulations. The airlines achieve this by implementing their policies and procedures contained in a suite of operations manuals. These manuals must be acceptable to us. Parts of them are approved and parts of them are just accepted. However, it is the operating procedure of an airline that we oversee. Each airline is entirely responsible for managing its operations through this process, which is continually updated to meet changes in the European regulations. These happen quite frequently. Also, the IAA, as the Irish designated safety regulator, must agree that we deem them acceptable.

I will outline our approach to oversight. The IAA has a 24-month oversight audit programme in place for all its Irish airlines. The programme combines both planned and unplanned inspections over the entire airline operator's network. Furthermore, the IAA has daily exchanges and dialogue with the airline, monthly flight operations meetings to agree changes to its operating procedures to ensure they are compliant and annual reviews with the airline's senior management to confirm oversight and compliance. The IAA audits are conducted to ensure regulatory compliance with European and international standards.

I will ask Captain Courtney to outline the flight time limitations part of our presentation.