Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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I thank Mr. Hughes for coming in. The stated organisational goal of Eurocontrol, according to its website, is expertise that spans the entire air traffic management cycle, from research and innovation to development and into operations of primary performance monitoring. Furthermore, it has a mission statement to deliver management excellence from the centre stage of pan-European aviation. My questions are a little bit technical and parochial, but are also about the knock-on impacts.

First and foremost, we have talked about the air navigation service providers, ANSPs, and the air traffic control and deviations. It has been reported to me, though I am not one for monitoring these things, that aircraft using Dublin Airport on a very regular basis are exceeding not only their flight plan, but the stated standard instrument departure charts for the airport. They are being given clearance or instructions by ATC to do so. If he is responsible, or partially responsible, for monitoring that sort of thing, can Mr. Hughes point me in the direction of a specific report that illustrates, for instance, that when aircraft are using the new north runway opened in August 2022 and departing over north county Dublin, they are achieving speeds below the threshold mandated height within the SID under the instruction of air traffic control?

I wish to get some understanding of, and-or a direction to somebody who might be able to get under the hood a little further, what exactly air control can do, along with its partners across Europe and, indeed, EASA as regards ensuring Dublin Airport is operated as efficiently as possible, given it now has two parallel runways. It looks to me, and from the eyes of experts who have reported it to me, that it clearly is not. There are certain patterns emerging that show it is perhaps an ATC issue in the sense that if it had more air traffic controllers, it might be in a position to operate more efficiently. More importantly, in terms of weather and the knock-on impacts across the European Continent, which I completely understand is the priority of this meeting, the deviations Mr. Hughes referred to have knock-on impacts, such as planes being in the wrong place at the wrong time because they did not stick to their flight plans and therefore they get into congested airspace, coupled with weather, mean miserable passengers, holiday-makers and business travellers as well.

What does Mr. Hughes believe Eurocontrol can do to improve that? What can any Irish authority or agencies do to improve it? It is clear there is an opportunity for us to learn from the mistakes of last summer, as identified on the screen at the moment. The various airlines and agencies have said various things about air traffic control. Are there things we can do in this House or within the European Parliament, for instance, to improve that position? If my questions on deviations, flight paths and runway usage are a little bit beyond Mr. Hughes's-----