Ms Lynne Embleton:

There are a lot of questions there so let me try to answer each of them. I cannot give the Deputy a commitment that we will reinstate the cabin crew base. In fact, we will not be reversing that decision. It is the right decision to ultimately get Aer Lingus flying profitably, generating cash and supporting jobs. What I will reiterate is that we want to have flying from the regions, we want to have flying from Shannon, and I fully expect that we will. To withdraw the cabin crew base is not to withdraw Aer Lingus from Shannon; it is to enable us to more profitably and more sustainably operate our routes from Shannon.

The Deputy touched on timings. As he said, we had early morning flights before the Covid pandemic and we were able to do that without, for example, a pilot base. Therefore, the timing of the flights is not dependent on having a crew base there and if the market demand is there, then I fully expect we will be flying a strong schedule to Heathrow from Shannon, as we did before the pandemic.

The Deputy is right that we have made use of the TWSS. With that scheme, we have still been losing over €1 million a day, so while we are certainly grateful for that scheme, it is not the answer to all of our problems. We have also availed of a loan from the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, ISIF. This is a loan on commercial terms, it is a loan with a risk premium built into it, a loan that needs to be paid back and a loan with interest that we need to pay. This loan was required by Aer Lingus because of the Covid pandemic and particularly because of the restrictions that were in place on flying to and from Ireland. It has been the pandemic and the policies that have put us in the situation where we needed liquidity and, as I said, that liquidity has come through a commercial-based loan with a risk premium attached.

On the question of conditionality around further liquidity, that is not acceptable to Aer Lingus. We do not believe it is in the interests of the communities to be putting burdens and restrictions around an airline that has suffered over this pandemic, an airline that wants to get back on its feet and wants to restore connectivity. The best way to do that is for us to make the changes and restructure our business so we can generate cash, so I can make the decisions to get the aircraft that are parked back in the air, and so we can develop the network we would all like to see.