Mr. Eddie Wilson:

I keep saying with regard to harmonisation at the moment, and I do not know how many times I have to say it, that regardless of the traffic light system, outside of this jurisdiction at the moment a person can fly to any country in Europe, even those that are affected now, because they have land borders, not unlike Northern Ireland with the Republic. We are cutting ourselves off from the rest of Europe. I do not think people here get it and it is going to get worse because there will be fewer airline seats in Europe when this comes back. There are going to be fewer airline seats throughout the world. Our policy at the moment is to wander around in the darkness and say we might be doing something and we are having an expert group and all sorts of things rather than doing something.

We need connectivity on this island for this economy and if we are not going to have it, we had better be honest with the 325,000 people in tourism for next summer. They are going to lose next summer over complete inaction from this Minister. This Minister has had a report. He has all the answers in 12 recommendations and I do not know why he is not here today to say when he is going to implement them. Is he going to be honest with the 140,000 people in this industry or the 325,000 people in the tourism industry who are likely to lose their jobs next year? We will be able to put our aircraft elsewhere. It is the most moveable of assets. We do not want to do that.