Ms Cathy Mannion:

I agree with Deputy Munster that we will have to agree to disagree. Deputy Munster is absolutely correct that the customer's rights are a priority. What I feel or do not feel is completely irrelevant to this. I am not even getting into the space of who is stronger and who is weaker because that is not the main point. The main point is to try to help the passengers.

On the question of legal obligations, yes, the same as the IAA, there was no legal obligation for them to tell us, or the CAA or other enforcement bodies, as far as I am aware. Most of these sort of events are not planned, they just happen. I can see possibly why the week before they happen that notice cannot be given because they do not know what will happen. Together with Ms Patricia Barton I would like to talk to our European colleagues, because coincidentally we are meeting next week which had nothing to do with this, on how we see the regulation working. We might explore that some more with them to see how best we can achieve that. I would not automatically jump to say we need more powers to make it a legal obligation. There may be other routes; the principle is that whatever we put in place needs to be workable not just for us but, where possible, for all the enforcement bodies around Europe. It is not just us who are affected. I am talking to Ryanair because I am looking at flights ex-Ireland, but Ryanair's problem is European-wide. There is a slight difference between my perspective and theirs. We will work with our European counterparts to see what we can do in that area.