Maeve O'Connell (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming here this evening and making themselves available to answer all these questions. It has certainly been very enlightening for me with respect to all the procedures and the many questions we have had over the past number of weeks.

Coming back to the shortfall in air traffic controllers, I know my colleague Senator Kyne raised this as well. It was mentioned that, across the EU, it is a number of about 700. I am also aware that the US also has a shortfall of air traffic controllers. This seems to be a global issue. It was mentioned that it was a post-Covid situation. Is the fact that, post Covid, the aviation industry recovered much more quickly than people anticipated something that has impacted air traffic controllers but has also impacted demand for pilots and other sectors of aviation? Is it an across-the-board aviation issue?