Mr. Paul Hackett:

Things were bad when we spoke to the committee in October and they have got much worse. There was no reopening date for travel back then and we assumed it would resume in the second quarter of 2021. This has now been pushed out to the first quarter of 2022 with no prospect of international travel in 2021. Last Thursday on "Prime Time", the Taoiseach said that travel had totally collapsed and that some of the measures are a deterrent to travel and will have an impact. On 1 February at the daily NPHET briefing, the Chief Medical Officer said it is not realistic to expect people can fly to Europe or other destinations for summer holidays and the only beach they are likely to travel to is their local one. We now have the €500 fine for anyone travelling for nonessential reasons. There is clearly no doubt that travel agents cannot trade.

We, as an industry, are responsible and customer focused. We have always and will continue to follow public health guidelines. However, if NPHET and the Government want to close down international travel for a year, they need to put in place the appropriate level of support if they want an Irish travel industry when international travel can safely resume. We are a unique sector in that we have had to remain open to clients to facilitate refunds with practically zero income for almost two years. The travel sector needs a bespoke response with a specific support as a consequence of being closed on public health grounds linked to international travel.

Let me summarise the supports in place. The travel industry is accessing the EWSS similar to other sectors. The scheme is available when turnover is down at least 30%. We are more than 90% down and for 2021 we could be 100% down. We also have no visibility on wage supports after 31 March. Most of the travel industry is accessing the Covid restriction support scheme, CRSS. This is designed to assist with nonpayroll costs. To qualify, a business must be 75% down on turnover compared to 2019 and it applies from level 3 and above. The travel industry has been told the scheme only applies to it at levels 4 and 5. This is an advanced tax credit; it is not a grant. The maximum threshold of €5,000 per week seems reasonable provided turnover is €4 million per year or less but for any travel company above this level the support simply does not cover non-payroll costs to any material extent. This is a retail-focused assistance and does not cover all Irish licensed travel companies. The CRSS does not support a downturn in business and is directly linked to the levels in the Covid framework but, clearly, travel agents are prevented from trading irrespective of the levels, and have been since March 2020.

The Government introduced the refund credit note scheme in summer 2020. This is a cash flow mechanism to assist with delayed supplier refunds. We need to be clear that the refund credit note is not a grant, a subsidy or a support. It is a pure cash flow mechanism introduced with a nine-month delay on the assumption that the industry would be back trading. Clearly this is not the case and we need a solution to this issue similar to the approaches adopted with EU approval in Denmark, the Netherlands, Portugal, Bulgaria and others.

This brings us to the issue of airlines refunds or the lack thereof. When we spoke to the committee last October, we outlined the potential reason for the delay on the part of one particular airline being down to a conflict over two EU directives that impact the travel industry. This has turned out to be the case and we can go into more detail in the question-and-answer session. The fact is that a significant number of refunds to customers for cancelled flights are outstanding. Given the current talk of no international travel for 2021, we need to discuss the issue of consumer protection and refunds when flights operate contrary to Government advice on travel. These are known as "ghost flights" and the ultimate loser is the consumer.

Committee members may also recall that the ITAA called for pre-departure airport testing when we addressed the committee back in October 2020. The aviation recovery task force, the airports and airlines also called for predeparture airport testing. What ensued was a debate with the medics over which test should be used and none was introduced. Subsequently, we have been dealing with the issue of variants of Covid that arrived into Ireland in late 2020. Was predeparture airport testing a missed opportunity?

When we addressed the committee in October, there was no talk of vaccines. The State is spending €1 billion a week in supports and related costs and we are being told there is a vaccine supply issue. There does not appear to be a supply issue for some countries and given this is a life-saving opportunity, it appears that we are lagging well behind in getting the vaccine into the arms of our citizens.