Dr. Chris Horn:

I thank the Chairman, Senators and Deputies for inviting me. I have provided a brief opening statement to the committee. I should note at the outset that I have no direct involvement whatsoever in the aviation sector. My background is in software engineering and entrepreneurship.

I was contacted by the former Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Mr. Shane Ross, in early June asking whether I would consider acting as a neutral chairman, from outside of the aviation sector, of the aviation task force which he was putting together. Having reflected, I agreed to do so. He emphasised to me the urgency with which we should undertake our work and the speed at which we should come up with our recommendations. The members of the task force were invited by the former Minister. I had no involvement in putting the task force together. Some of my colleagues on the task force, I believe, have already spoken to the committee, and perhaps in the future further members will do so. I do not know the committee's agenda.

We had four meetings in early June and mid-June and finished on 3 July. We produced an interim report after two weeks and a final report after a further two weeks. Our work was very intense. We worked with the secretariat over weekends to produce our recommendations. I hope Deputies and Senators have had an opportunity to read our reports, in particular the final report, and look at our recommendations, which I will not repeat here. We then presented our reflections to the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, on 10 July and subsequently to a broader audience, including the secretary to the Government, in late July. The task force has not met since that last meeting and in effect has ceased its work.

My only comment as somebody from outside of the sector working with young start-ups is how important aviation is to us as an economy and a small nation on the periphery of Europe. A certain amount can be done by virtual calls such as this, on Zoom, GoToMeeting and so on, but for new business development it is virtually impossible to win new customers, raise international finance, hire new international staff and develop new partnerships with virtual conference calls alone. Face-to-face meetings are important. Business, after all, is done between people, not between companies, and in establishing new business relationships one needs that personal contact. I think it is extremely difficult and frustrating for indigenous companies based in Ireland with export markets that their competitors overseas are able to travel more freely than we are in this country at this point. That places further stress on the high-potential technology start-up sector.

With that, I thank the committee and the Chairman again for the invitation. I would be happy to take any questions.