Ms Lynne Embleton:

The development of an entire sustainable aviation fuel industry is needed to decarbonise aviation. All of us in the airline community are committed to decarbonising aviation.

That requires SAF production for long-haul flights and other technology such as hydrogen may develop for short-haul flights. We need sustainable aviation fuel for long-haul flights. The technology is there. There are seven proven pathways for developing sustainable aviation fuel. It is the production that is needed. As with the development of all new industries and new projects, investment in production requires financial incentives. As an airline we can commit to off-take agreements, which is purchasing the output from those production plants. However, it needs incentives to build. In the US, there is a policy in place that incentivises the development of SAF production; in the EU there is not. A mandate is one thing, but production is the other. We are committed to taking SAF. We need its production. We need it in the EU. We should look hard at developing that as an industry in Ireland. There is potential feedstock and we are doing with Nova Pangaea to establish the sources of feedstock in Ireland and develop such an industry. I encourage the committee to look very hard at how the SAF industry can be developed here and to encourage its development in Europe more broadly.