Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is 38 incidences. I cannot understand why it has not acted on this. It is typical, especially in this country, that we end up being reactive instead of proactive in trying to address these matters. Agencies should put up their hands and say if there have been mistakes. There have been many investigations in this area in recent years. There are ongoing investigations with Boeing. In this case, the pilot who was in charge of a plane that was descending into Dublin Airport has been told by the AAIU that it did not happen in mid-flight. No matter whether it happened at the start of the flight, the middle of the flight or the end of the flight, it is still in flight. I have seen the response here, and it is like those provided by many Departments. I could be wrong, but nobody seems to want to put up their hand and say that there could have been a major incident here. Maybe we have overlooked it once or twice, but it cannot be overlooked 38 times if these are all different incidences. I would like to invite Mr. O'Riordan to come before the committee.

It is like everything. When I ask the mental health committees who is the expert when it comes to suicide, they bring in psychologists and psychiatrists. I ask whether we could bring in the three kids who were friends with the 16-year old who took his or her life. They are the experts because they are the ones who are living the pain. They are the ones who grew up with the individual and shared the life experiences. That is who I call the experts. I ask the Chair to bring Mr. O'Riordan before this committee and if possible let him explain to us, as he was the pilot, exactly what he felt. We can get the true stories and the facts from him, and then go back to the air investigation unit or whatever.

I would like to refer to page 17 of a report that I found. I ask the committee to bear with me because my notes are mixed up. I found something interesting in the last paragraph. This is the good part because it relates to responsibility, accountability and who actually calls the shots here. Page 17 of the AAIU's report, which sets out its observations on the petitioners's submission to this committee, states:

As stated in Regulation 4 of SI460 of 2009; 'the AAIU shall be functionally independent of the State aviation authorities, responsible for the operation or regulation of air-worthiness certification, flight operations, aircraft maintenance ...”. Any data indicating a concern surrounding airworthiness or an aircraft maintenance are a matter for the Operator and the National Aviation Authority.

We are flipping and flopping over three different agencies because the operator, whoever it is, is passing the buck and saying it is their problem. The AAIU is saying "maybe it is not us; it is the national aviation authority's responsibility". Who is actually responsible for this? I suggest getting Mr. O'Riordan in to ask him those questions. When we ascertain who is responsible and where the buck stops on this, I suggest that we get them in.

As I said, I have worked with protected disclosures. If there are major concerns in protected disclosures regarding the health and safety of an individual or others, you have to act on it swiftly. If there are 322 people on each of the 38 planes and there is a possibility of a major incident with lives being lost, I will not sit here and say that it does not sound right but it will be okay. That is what I have to say on this. I am nervous that something bad could happen. We have been here talking about it. Somebody else should be doing his or her job.