Ms Lynne Embleton:

I thank the committee for the opportunity to engage with it again. As members of the committee will be well aware, it is a critical time for aviation. There are a number of issues in play. We submitted a statement a few weeks ago, which I assume members have had an opportunity to read, so I do not propose to read through it verbatim. We also submitted a supplementary statement yesterday and I propose to draw on some of the key points within that statement.

This is an evolving situation. Issues are changing by the day and a number of issues have arisen over the previous few weeks that are detrimental to aviation. We would like to discuss them here today. Since we last met the joint committee, the situation at Stobart Air has come into the public domain. This committee has been for some time discussing the risks posed to aviation by the ongoing pandemic and the restrictions imposed on aviation. If we needed any more evidence of those risks materialising, the demise of Stobart Air is exactly that. Close to midnight on 11 June, we were informed that Stobart Air would cease trading, following which the Aer Lingus team worked through the night and the weekend to put in place services to, where possible, rebook, refund and accommodate passengers We have announced that Aer Lingus will be able to sustain six of the Stobart Air routes over the coming months, with some of the others being operated by our partner airline BA CityFlyer. We have also indicated that we are willing to step up and operate the Dublin-Kerry services subject to the imposition of an appropriate public service obligation, PSO and to explore options that would enable the restoration of the Dublin-Donegal service. Aer Lingus was disappointed to note that the first change in policy following the demise of Stobart Air was an increase in the restrictions imposed on UK and Ireland passengers, which is a market that had been served by Stobart Air and in respect of which it had suffered significantly due to the pandemic.

The next issue I would like to draw attention to is the discrepancy in the travel restrictions post-19 July, which take a different approach to the UK and the US than they do to Europe. These are two key markets for aviation. We do not believe that an evidence-based approach would conclude there should be differences in the restrictions between travellers going to and from Ireland, the UK and the USA and those going to and from Ireland and the rest of Europe. We believe this is a further impediment to aviation getting back on its feet and beginning the recovery that we all need and hope for. The particular consequences of the restrictions on travellers to and from the UK and to and from the US is an anti-family policy in that it means vaccinated parents and their families can travel outside of Ireland but on return from the US or the UK, their children would be obliged to quarantine or self-isolate at home and US or UK vaccinated parents and their families who choose to spend some time in Ireland would be able to move around within Ireland but, again, the children would need to isolate. This situation dampens enthusiasm for travel. It is another impediment that we believe should be revisited.

I will comment briefly on the subject of antigen testing. We believe antigen testing is the appropriate form of testing for pre-departure screening. That view is shared by other countries in the EU, many of which have adopted that standard. The Irish policy insists on PCR testing, which is more expensive, less convenient and, again, another impediment to the restoration of travel.

The final issue to which I want to draw the attention of the committee is the provision of data which demonstrate to passengers thinking of coming to Ireland the status of Covid and the attractiveness or otherwise of travelling to Ireland. Over recent weeks, that data that have not been provided to the US authorities or to the EU authorities and consequently, whereas other countries such as France, Italy, Greece and Germany have been categorised from a US perspective as "reconsider travel", the absence of those data has meant that Ireland was still categorised as "do not travel". This is another impediment to the restart of aviation. We understand this situation has been corrected in the past 24 hours and I am hoping that damage ceases but undoubtedly, over the past weeks it will have had an impact on propensity to travel to Ireland.

When the announcement was made on 28 May we were optimistic and we were pleased with many of the changes that were announced, including the opening up of travel on 19 July. The cumulative impact of the ongoing restrictions in relation to the issues I have raised means that enthusiasm has been dampened and it now appears to be too little too late in terms of any significant bounce that will get us on the right path to restoring connectivity,supporting jobs and connecting Ireland in the near term.

I look forward to discussing these issues with the committee but in particular, I am looking for the support of the committee to address many of the issues we have put forward and that we believe are essential to restarting aviation and a healthy aviation industry in Ireland.