Mr. Eddie Wilson:

I am delighted to be here to assist the committee in its work. We have already given a detailed written submission but I will draw the committee's attention to some of the key points.

Ryanair, as part of the aviation sector, is uniquely placed. Our business is risk assessment, passenger confidence and safety.

When we talk about the balance between public health initiatives and returning to a functioning economy, those in the aviation business are well placed for that. We work in an industry that is probably more regulated than the medical industry. I would also say that Ryanair, given that it is the largest airline in Europe - and in the world for international passengers - is uniquely placed within the sector because of its daily interactions with the European Aviation Safety Agency, EASA, and the various governments throughout Europe. We will be able to give some insight into that.

I echo what the witness from Aer Lingus said. I do not propose to repeat everything he said except to state that the industry is in crisis, and in this country in particular. If we look at the number of jobs that are potentially on the line, there are 40,000 jobs directly in aviation, 100,000 spin-off jobs and more than 335,000 jobs in tourism that are potentially affected. If we look at what has happened in Ireland with the outbreak of this pandemic, the Government handled it well at the start in terms of lockdown, the way it resourced it and its speed of reaction. However, the way it has been opened up afterwards in terms of how we strike a balance between public health initiatives in stopping the spread of this disease and having a functioning economy has been a disaster, frankly, for aviation.

This is not just about aviation. As the witness from Aer Lingus said, this is not just about holidays. We are heading into the shoulder season. We depend on business traffic. There will be 50% less traffic, certainly from this airline, and I imagine the figure is similar for Aer Lingus, and we are on the periphery of Europe. This country needs a functioning aviation sector. It is the oil in the engine of the economy and if we push it out, we will reap what will come from that in terms of structural damage to this economy and unemployment will closely follow that.

If we consider what happened in Ireland after the initial handling of the pandemic, the green list has been a total disaster. The idea that we would be looking at connectivity to Gibraltar and Monaco has been held up to ridicule. In terms of the way the Government has complied with its own guidelines, we need to get a handle on this. In terms of the recommendations we put in, we should have the EU 27 and the UK back on the green list. It is about the way we manage this going forward. We are easily able to handle the risk assessments and the safety concerns. If we look at what has happened in the rest of Europe, those countries are now open. They have complied with the recommendations of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. The committee members should watch yesterday's World Health Organization press conference at which Dr. Michael Ryan said that closing borders is not the way to do it. We have got to get the balance right. We have got the balance wrong on this so far.

In terms of what will happen, IATA says that we will not recover to 2019 levels in terms of traffic throughout the world until 2023 and 2024. The amount of traffic in Europe in particular will shrink, and that will not just bounce back. Airlines will make their decisions but, in terms of what will happen, we will lose this traffic forever and end up going back to where we were previously in this country, with no ease of connectivity. The recommendation we make today is that we get the UK and the EU 27 countries on the green list and put in place incentives because the rest of Europe is working ahead on this. They are investing in their economies now. The rich economies - the Germans, the French and the Dutch - are putting money into their economies. We are going to get left behind.

I hope I can deal with many of the questions the members wish to ask.