Mr. Evan Cullen:

I thank the Chairman for the opportunity to meet the special committee. Matters have moved on considerably since we made our written submission in May. For this reason, we made a supplementary submission this morning. That submission was drafted with the knowledge of the stimulus plan announced yesterday. The package announced by the Government does nothing to address the concerns we have regarding the aviation industry in Ireland and the impact on workers in aviation in Ireland.

In our original written submission, we called for the Government to comply with and enact policies which were in line and consistent with the recommendations and guidance of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, ECDC, and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, EASA. That has not occurred. The Government has not adhered to the European guidelines and Ireland is an outlier with regard to its restrictions on travel and the imposition of the so-called green list. The green list is not aligned with EU health advice. The Government has put the Canary Islands in the same category as Spain on the green list. The Canary Islands are roughly the same distance from Spain as Scotland is from Iceland. There is no public health or scientific logic to the Canary Islands being lumped in with Spain.

Testing and contact tracing, which is the gold standard, is not in place at our airports but it should be. The nonsense relating to the travel ban is tested by Belfast. Belfast city and Belfast International Airport have access to 59 countries, as opposed to Dublin having access to 15. Ireland is, in effect, closed for business. That said, we respect the Government's decision to undermine and take out the Irish aviation industry and we are now close to the point of no return. The damage that is being done to the industry is near irreparable. We have had one casualty so far. One airline has gone into examinership and has made redundant virtually all of its operational staff in Dublin. It has started rehiring staff in Denmark because Denmark has pro-employment legislation whereas we have pro-redundancy legislation. Airline operations have all but ceased. Thousands of highly skilled, high-paid people in the industry are looking at mortgage foreclosure in the new year. A loss of circa €8.9 billion of GDP is directly attributable to air transport, along with the loss of 8.8 million tourists, and the loss of cargo and connectivity with 140,000 employed in the sector, directly and indirectly.

Aer Lingus has laid off effectively half their staff and the rest are on half pay, much of which is subsidised by the temporary wage subsidy scheme, TWSS. Ryanair has a headline of 20% pay cut but, in effect, the pay cuts are far more drastic than that. All of Stobart Air's employees are living on social welfare and CityJet, as I mentioned, have made redundant all its crews in Dublin and commenced recruitment in Denmark. We know that CityJet and Stobart Air applied for assistance from the Government. We have not seen the reply but we believe nothing has been offered by the Government.

Ireland is an outlier in terms of travel restrictions and in its refusal to give assistance to the industry aside from the TWSS, which every other country is doing. In my supplementary submission, I set out all of the assistance that European governments have given to airlines on top of the equivalent of the TWSS. It is important to note that €30 billion in state support has been granted to European airlines. Ireland has contributed zero of that €30 billion. In the UK, British Airways, BA, received a £300 million credit facility on top of the equivalent of TWSS. The UK Government has given both Ryanair and EasyJet a £600 million credit facility. Spain, the home of Iberia and Vueling, has given a €1 billion state-backed loan on the provision of no redundancies. The Netherlands has given €3 billion to KLM, France has given €7 billion to Air France while Germany has given Lufthansa €9 billion in assistance. Aer Lingus has not received a cent from the Government. While we have the most restrictive travel policy, we have also had the least generous response - if not zero generosity - from the Government to assist us in this crisis.

Aer Lingus is one of a number of airlines that is wholly owned by International Airlines Group, IAG, which is registered in Spain but headquartered in London. BA, Iberia and Vueling are others in the group but there are also smaller airlines in IAG. Most of these operate under the brand of LEVEL, but one is Anisec, which is LEVEL in Austria. That has filed for bankruptcy and we understand it is being liquidated. OpenSkies in France, a small airline operating under the LEVEL brand-----