Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the gentlemen for their presentations this morning. My heart goes out to the members of the ITAA. We have seen one of the biggest travel agents go and it was synonymous with Irish travel for many years. Having lost a business many years ago, I can say that it was my fault. For those who are going out of business in the travel industry at the moment, it is not their fault and the situation is most unfortunate.

There is one theme that is the elephant in the room. The Department of Health is running everything and the master of the witnesses' organisation is the Department of Transport. I am concerned that the Department of Health has too many tentacles and that one cannot keep all the balls in the air without dropping some. So, I am interested in hearing what the witnesses have to say about the matter.

Yesterday, at the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence, the Minister for Foreign Affairs was very positive in his support for trying to get the economy back running as normal as possible.

With that in mind, I note the witnesses constantly referenced the IT sector. Are they aware of the development of a mobile app that will allow people to present their phone at the airport to show that they have been vaccinated or had the virus or both, or have not been vaccinated, as the case may be, in order to facilitate travel? We have to get people back in the air. There are airline pilots who are desperately trying to keep their licence up to date. There are travel agents struggling to keep their business going. I learned today that there will be a sort of six to nine month lag before the small few travel agents that will still be in business will start to see profits coming back in.

Do the witnesses see the same elephant in the room that I see? I ask them to also address the mobile app. Those are the two issues of concern to me.