Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair and wish him and the members, "Good afternoon." I thank the committee for the invitation to appear before it regarding its consideration of Ireland's national aviation policy.

Our current policy was published in August 2015, which was a little more than 20 years since a previous formal statement of objectives had been made in respect of aviation. I think we can all agree that air travel has changed remarkably since 1994, yet some of the objectives set out then, and restated in 2015, remain valid today.

The development of that 2015 policy was a thorough process that was launched in December 2012 and involved multiple phases of consultation and consideration of views and comments expressed and offered by a range of stakeholders and it is intended that we will approach the review in a similar consultative and collaborative manner.

Of course, we cannot talk about aviation policy without recognising and acknowledging our geographic position and the unique role aviation plays in ensuring geography has not been an impediment to our economic development. We are an island nation on the periphery of Europe, but despite that we have managed to build our economy into one that is recognised worldwide in scale. Indeed, President von der Leyen, in her address to the Dáil last week, remarked how Ireland is seen as a success story of the European Union. If we were to look for evidence to illustrate that, we could look to the aviation sector as an example. We rely on aviation to provide our international connectivity and to secure our economic position globally. In addition, in terms of direct employment, aviation serves as a key driver for our wider economy through the various ancillary services provided to airports, airlines and in local communities. It also plays a central role in supporting our tourism industry, which has been a leading job creator, especially in rural communities. Prior to the pandemic, tourism supported more than 260,000 jobs, with almost 70% of those located outside of Dublin.

No doubt the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, will take the opportunity in her opening statement to provide some detail in respect of our policy approach to airports, both State and regional. I would like to turn to the principal goals at the heart of the national aviation policy, which were to enhance Ireland's connectivity, to foster the growth of aviation enterprise and to maximise the contribution of aviation to Ireland's sustainable economic growth and development. It is fair to say that since the policy was published, it has served the industry well and significant progress was made on the implementation and delivery of the goals. Two progress reports were published in respect of the policy, the most recent of which was in 2019. Unfortunately, as we are all aware, we were soon faced after that with the worst crisis ever to hit the aviation industry, indeed all industries, in the form of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020, focus was quickly diverted to managing this crisis and difficult decisions had to be taken, both domestically and globally, which had extreme consequences for the aviation industry.

The Government engaged closely with the industry during this period of upheaval and provided unprecedented horizontal Exchequer supports to try to alleviate the impacts being experienced. Further to this, the national economic recovery plan recognised that additional support may be required to support the sector's recovery as European and international air transport returned. Given this, the Government allocated a further €116 million under a Covid supplementary support scheme to Irish airports. This funding compensated smaller regional airports for the damage caused to them by Covid as well as providing State airports with flexibility to roll out route incentives and to provide rebates with a view to supporting recovery and returning connectivity. These route incentives have proved successful in providing impetus for the recovery. We are pleased to see that is now well under way. However that does not mean obstacles do not remain.

My Department has now turned its attention to assessing the current drivers for change in the context of a revision of the national aviation policy. The impact of the Covid-19 crisis is one factor, but there are other issues in the changing landscape of the aviation industry that need to be given significant consideration. I believe the most crucial of these is the climate crisis. We can longer ignore the fact that a fundamental change is necessary to mitigate the negative impacts caused to our environment by air travel. I am working closely with my European colleagues on the progression of the EU's most comprehensive package of proposals ever to address climate change, the Fit for 55 legislative package. A number of the measures in this package will directly impact the aviation industry. A key element in the short term in addressing decarbonisation of the industry will be the role of sustainable aviation fuel, SAF. New obligations will be placed on airlines to incorporate mandated levels of SAF into their fuel supply chain from 2025. Given this is a nascent industry, it is clear this is an area we will need to examine carefully in the context of our review.

There are other ways and means to decarbonise. Taken from what is known as the basket of measures, these include technological advances, improvements in operational arrangements, and market-based measures. Irish airlines, by and large, operate modern fuel-efficient fleets, but there is still a requirement for them to engage in the market-based measures such as the emissions trading scheme, ETS, from a European perspective, and the carbon offsetting and reduction scheme for international aviation, CORSIA, on a global level. The ETS has proven to be effective, and the European Commission has estimated that aviation's participation in the scheme has contributed to almost 200 million tonnes of reductions of CO2 emissions over the past eight years. The Fit for 55 package includes a proposal to strengthen further the ETS scheme for aviation. The industry itself has acknowledged it needs to play its part, as we all do, and that includes the travelling public. I encourage anyone who has an opportunity voluntarily to offset their journey to take that option.

There have been many other developments happening domestically, including the institutional changes in respect of our safety and economic regulators and the air navigation service provided. I am pleased to say the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, and officials have secured the passing of this importance legislation, which will see us move forward with a best practice approach to regulatory structure.

There are changes internationally, too, and innovations and advances in the industry that will need to be considered in our review. Aviation has always been an evolving industry, and this challenges us as policymakers and regulators to act to ensure we can provide a fit-for-purpose framework within which our industry can operate and develop in a sustainable way. It is safe to say there is challenging work ahead of us. In saying that, we must also recognise it will take time to undertake the appropriate engagement and analysis needed to make sure we adopt the right approach for us all. I look forward to engaging with the committee on this work and to receiving its analysis and views following this series of engagements it has undertaken.