Ms Mary Considine:

To give a quick response to the question, we have indicated already that our group revenue is down more than €1.3 million on average per week since the pandemic hit us in March. The committee can imagine how significant that is for an entity of our size. We have put difficult measures in place to reduce the amount of cash burn and that has been hard. It has been very difficult for staff who have had to take pain. We initially reduced hours of operation and we need to look at that again, so it has been tough. We have taken a number of measures to try to ensure we can trade our way through this but the longer it goes on, the more difficult it is and that is why operational support would be very important to us. On reopening the country, as an industry we have stepped up to the plate. We very quickly implemented all the measures to try to rebuild consumer confidence. We have made the journey through the airport as contactless as possible. We are, as an entity, advocating for pre-departure testing to restore confidence and working with the European traffic light system, and the committee has heard Mr. Philips talking about the decisions the Government needs to take. We have stepped up to the plate, as an industry, we have done all we can. We want to reopen aviation in a safe manner, we are very conscious of our public health obligations and we do not believe aviation is contributing to the spike in virus rates across the country that we are currently experiencing. It is certainly not the cause of us moving to level 5 restrictions, so we need to have a grown-up conversation and decisions need to be taken quickly about reopening the country.