Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do not blame Aer Lingus. It is a commercial company and will make commercial decisions. Right now, and for the foreseeable future, it makes commercial sense to operate the Shannon-Heathrow route. The witnesses should not blame themselves. There may come a time when that may not happen and our worst dreams and nightmares might come true. The reality is that Shannon and the mid-west region was sold a pup, in that there would be a guaranteed service from Shannon to Heathrow until September 2022. We are at the door of that. Aer Lingus has committed to it, but we cannot hold it to any commitment. There is no legal basis for the Government to hold something over Aer Lingus at the moment.

The decision to close the Shannon base was taken in the darkest days of Covid. During a meeting with the committee on Microsoft Teams, Aer Lingus said there was a cash burn of €1 million a day, if I remember correctly, and it was talking about the company's survival and said it needed to make very harsh decisions. That did not go down well with the workers, but sin é. That has happened.

People are now looking at aviation taking off, quite literally. The recovery rate is quite high, in particular in Dublin, but also in places like Cork and Shannon, which is in my constituency. Given that Aer Lingus is performing well and the next 12 months should, it is to be hoped, bode even better for the company, has it given consideration to the reinstatement of the Shannon base? How viable has bussing cabin crew from Dublin been over the past 14 months?