Imelda Munster (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I shall start with a question for the Commission for Aviation Regulation being the regulator in Ireland. I believe it all kicked off on 15 September with the first announcement of the cancellation of 40 to 50 flights per day until the end of October. Like most people, I had numerous concerns and several questions about the matter, but having listened to the responses today, I find that I have now even more questions. I think it is fair to say, as most people believe, that if it had not been for the Civil Aviation Authority, CAA, in the United Kingdom outlining the details day by day and contacting Ryanair, Ryanair would not have come forward with the information. The CAA took it to task, threatened it with legal action, served it with an enforcement notice and gave it a deadline by which it had to furnish passengers with information to which they had an automatic right. If it had not been for this action by the CAA, however, Ryanair could still be playing games.

I do not want the commissioner to take this personally, but I do not think Ryanair showed her office much respect. I do not think it took the Commission for Aviation Regulation seriously throughout this process. It all started on 15 September and on 18 September the regulator had to make contact with the airline. Ryanair did not inform it about the initial cancellations. We are not talking about two or three but about a massive number of cancellations, not all of which were flights from Dublin. Ryanair did not extend to the Commission for Aviation Regulation the courtesy of informing it, as the regulator, of wide scale cancellations. It prolonged the delay in giving passengers the information to which they were entitled, despite having been requested by the regulator to do so. It also sent emails that were incorrect and it was not until the third email was sent that the regulator received the information. We can see there, therefore, that there is a pattern of Ryanair not responding to the regulator. If it had not been for the no-nonsense approach taken by the CAA, I believe passengers might still be in distress and operating under duress.

I found it very disappointing that the Commission for Aviation Regulation was not being forthright with the airline and was almost on the back foot from 15 September until 29 September when the CAA finally called out the airline out and Ryanair gave the information. There was a full fortnight of to-ing and fro-ing with the regulator, with the information being drip fed. One thing is for sure - Ryanair was certainly not taking the Commission for Aviation Regulation as seriously as it took the Civil Aviation Authority.

Reference was made to no advance notice being given of flight cancellations. The commissioner's colleague has outlined the fact that obviously the airline knew about the cancellations because they had been planned and the number of cancellations had all been worked out. It knew which flights were due to be cancelled. The commissioner has said there was no legal obligation on Ryanair to inform her office of the cancellations, but perhaps this is something at which we as a committee could look. I do not believe any passenger or customer of any company ever deserves to be treated in that manner. If the legislation needs to be looked at to give the regulator some teeth, perhaps there is some good that might come out of this fiasco.

Someone asked earlier if the Commissioner for Aviation Regulation did not have the same options. The same EU regulations applied here so the same options would have been open. I know Ms Mannion said she would have preferred to engage with Ryanair but everyone knows that Ryanair is not a company known for its consultation or continual updating with passenger information. It deals with workers, unions and so on. I do not know what gave Ms Mannion the impression that it was not something as serious as this and as widescale as this that did not need a firmer hand to be taken. That was the situation that arose and dragged on for over a fortnight. Ms Mannion said that if it was to happen again, she would do the same thing. Passengers do not need to hear that from a regulator's office. The commissioner needs to be more forceful, given Ryanair's history. We saw who got results first. Everybody is of the opinion that Ryanair did not take the commissioner seriously and had no respect for Ms Mannion's office. The events that unfolded over the fortnight proved that.

The Irish Aviation Authority indicated that it was not notified of the cancellations. There is no legal obligation on Ryanair to inform it of widespread cancellations since it is a commercial outfit. Does that not raise questions about a company that did not feel that it was a matter of courtesy, at least, to inform the Irish Aviation Authority? The Irish Aviation Authority has a commercial relationship with airports and airlines but it is also tasked with being a regulator and safety inspectorate, so it has a dual mandate, as far as I have read. Is there a potential for conflict? Is the IAA confident that all operators practise the "Just Culture" as defined in EU regulation, including Ryanair? I read some notes that the committee was sent about it and the IAA alluded earlier in the meeting to individual operators managing safety concerns internally. Are the witnesses confident in that system and, given that there may be a particular company that might discourage reporting of internal safety complaints, are they confident that those reports should be carried out internally and the IAA as an overseer should not have sight of and respond to all safety reports? The correspondence mentions that when reports on safety issues or other matters were sent to the IAA, people got the standard response that their correspondence had been received and then received no follow-up. What is the procedure relating to that?

We will have pilots in shortly. Do the witnesses believe that pilots have confidence in the Irish Aviation Authority?