Mr. Eddie Wilson:

Our view is that most of the state aid in Europe is illegal. In extraordinary times, however, it is possible to have state aid that is legal. As set out in the task force's recommendations, Aer Lingus, Ryanair and any other airline that flies in and out of Ireland could access reduced rates of airport charges or rebates on same. That would be fundamental in decisions to base aircraft in Ireland from next summer. We urge the Minister to do something on that.

Regarding businesses that are involved, we carry a large number of people to and from the UK. Many of them work in the NHS and so on. They have been discommoded by travel bans. One can only imagine what is going on in Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson in Cork where they are battling to develop a vaccine but it looks like access out of Cork Airport is slowly being strangled.

Anyone who wanted a cash refund has got a cash refund. It is accessible on the website. One will find people who are noisy about this but who were not entitled to refunds. If someone is entitled to a valid refund, he or she will get it.

Regarding travel agents, there is a process on our website. We must be sure that the person is getting his or her money back because that is what we are obliged to do under EU Regulation 261/2004. The Commission for Aviation Regulation understands that.

As to the question on Christmas, the Chief Medical Officer's decisions must be based on science. Saying at this stage that we should not have travel, regardless of where people come from, is to take the same route we followed in the summer when we trashed the tourism industry and policy failures saw the rates of Covid-19 spiral due to domestic factors. We must learn to live with this virus, restore our economy and protect the most vulnerable. There must be a way of doing that as opposed to this continuous cycle of lockdown, which will get us nowhere. We are very vulnerable as an economy.

I hope I answered all of the questions.