Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will be honest that most of the interaction with airports and airlines in recent weeks has been in relation to the management of the immediate crisis situation. I first wish to thank the airlines and the ferry companies. They have had a huge role. The Deputy referred to the airlines in particular, and one of the more immediate issues is that following the announcement of the UK variant on 19 or 20 December, we immediately introduced a ban on travel from the UK. That left a situation where nearly 1,500 Irish citizens, for a variety of reasons, found themselves in the UK and having to get home when we had stopped all air and ferry travel. For example, there was a mother who had gone to London to bury her son. I commend the airlines and the ferry companies on the support they gave to the State at that time. Ryanair and Aer Lingus especially set on a series of flights whereby the Department of Foreign Affairs was able to repatriate Irish citizens who were in difficult circumstances.

In the last ten days with the introduction of the polymerase chain reaction, PCR, test requirement, where all passengers coming to the island of Ireland must have a current negative PCR test, again we must work very closely with the airlines and the ferry companies to make sure they were carrying checks on passengers before they boarded to make sure they did have that negative test so as to minimise the chances of people arriving here without one. The airlines and ferry companies were very supportive of that and I thank them formally for the proactive co-operation they gave in managing this real crisis.

Before the Christmas period we had engaged more widely on the issue of supports, not just for airlines and the ferry companies but also for the airports, and in particular announced additional measures coming from the Covid emergency fund for Cork, Shannon and other airports. There has also been ongoing engagement with the airlines around lending supports and other mechanisms to help them. We agreed at the time that this was not just a fixed support and that we might have to come back to it. I will be honest that the immediate priority is getting through the necessary new legislation to introduce mandatory quarantine systems for those people coming from certain countries or who have not undertaken the PCR test, as well as the other statutory instruments that manage how we police our efforts. I hate to put it in those terms but the Deputy is aware that we now have new Garda checkpoints on approaches to airports because we do not want people flying. We want to minimise flying at this time. That is the more immediate priority, while recognising it has significant consequences for people in the travel and tourism industries, and others, and that we must provide ongoing support for those industries because they will have a difficult next few months, like the rest of the country, but particularly because they bear the brunt of a dramatic reduction in travel.