Mr. Rossa Mulcahy:

I thank the Deputy for the questions. I am speaking to the committee and I am also speaking to our air traffic service personnel who I am sure are listening in this evening as well. Like I said, I assure people we are working at this. There is a huge amount of work going on in the background at the Department level, Defence Forces headquarters level and certainly at Air Corps headquarters level. I thank the Tánaiste as well for the significant work he had done to get this agreement that we extend the existing pilots' scheme and we are working to ensure we can bring as many personnel as possible within the framework of that scheme and we are working every angle, to put it that way, to make that happen. As the Secretary General rightly said we are moving by agreement to an all-officer air traffic service model. The establishment of that will increase over time as move through the various levels of ambition up to level of ambition 2. When you couple the pay allocated for an officer with the associated professional pay and then a service commitment scheme, it will bring us by and large in line with what is being offered for similar services on the island. It does not quite match it, to be honest, but it comes very close and I go back to the point made at the very start about the proud service of the men and women of the Defence Forces and the Air Corps in particular. They take pride in being members of a profession of arms and that is a huge thing. That is why the work the Tánaiste has led and the Department and ourselves are driving forward is to bring a favourable scheme and to bring as many of our personnel within that scheme. It is my hope that will get us back operational in a timely manner.