Mr. Paul Hackett:

No, I am afraid not. Ryanair has acknowledged that it has an obligation under EU Regulation 261/2004 to refund customers. Ryanair has told us that it wants to do so directly to customers and the travel agents accept that. We are absolutely behind the airline in getting those refunds to the customers, including families, retirees and everyone else who is due that money from last year. That is the primary concern.

We have a shared objective in processing the refunds. As part of that, we engaged in Ryanair's customer verification process. We submitted a raft of documentation. At some point in October or November, the Ryanair systems seemed to stall. Some cheques issued from a German bank. Nothing has come out since then. Ryanair is now looking for bank details to do bank transfers. The end customer is the person suffering here, not the travel agents. We all accept that the refund can go directly to the customer. We really need Ryanair to do that. I hope that we can come back before the committee at the end of February and give an update on where that matter stands. We will do whatever we can to work with Ryanair. Our customers have done it and we want to do it. Let us get the refunds processed.