Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)
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I support the proposal put forward by Senator Buttimer. I commend him on raising this issue. The email he read out encapsulates the issue. What is happening is totally unacceptable. Aer Lingus is in receipt of State funding. It has been supported throughout Covid-19. It is in receipt of funding directly from the State to reinstate routes as opposed to discontinuing them. It is incumbent on Aer Lingus to come before this committee very soon to answer questions from members and, more importantly, from the public. Members of the public deserve answers.

I thank the Chairman and the members of the committee for supporting my proposal to do some work in respect of the national aviation policy. This is critical. We visited Shannon and Cork airports and we understand the need for a balanced aviation policy. We have seen the chaos in Dublin Airport in recent times. There is no reason why we should not sweat the assets in, for example, Shannon Airport for the benefit of Dublin and the entire country. We should do the work to which I refer in the autumn in parallel with the work that is going to be done by the Department. We can, in turn, feed our report into that work. The Minister for Transport, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has confirmed that the Department's work will begin in the autumn. We need to get stakeholders, interested parties and policymakers to come before the committee in order that we can make a lasting impact on national aviation policy. That is critical for our island. Again, I thank members for their support in taking up this proposal.