Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

I thank all the Deputies for their contributions on Second Stage. Despite the fairly short notice of the Bill, it is clear Members took time to study its impact and raised various points in that regard.

Deputy Olivia Mitchell is correct. I do not disagree with her, and other Deputies made the same point. I would rather not be here — I am sure everyone here is of the same view — dealing with this Bill but the problem arose in June out of the ad hoc group in Brussels and we were informed immediately. My officials briefed me on it immediately and we decided, as did other Governments in the same position, that we had to deal with it to protect Irish aviation, our airports and the other ancillary companies — baggage handling etc. — in airports.

To reply to Deputy Mitchell's point, the fact is that insurance will not be available. We are aware that Iberian Airlines has experienced serious difficulties in trying to get cover as a result of this decision and the Government had to step in. The company that a number of Deputies referred to — I have no difficulty putting it on the record — is Air Contractors. It is the largest Irish cargo airline with 200 employees and it will be affected from 1 July. That is partly the reason for this legislation.

From recollection, our main airlines — Aer Lingus, Ryanair etc. — renew later in the year, from about September or October, and the Dáil may not be in session to deal with some of them. Our main carriers would have been in difficulty also in that timeframe and it was decided to move quickly on the issue.

There are no subsidies involved. As I said earlier, we will charge the full commercial rate for the insurance, which is only right. On this occasion we will want payment before the cover will issue. I understand that was not the case under the previous Bill but on this occasion we will ensure we get full payment up-front for the cover.

In reply to Deputy Shortall, I gave the figures to the House earlier. She may have been attending another meeting at the time. On the last occasion the premiums amounted to €5.4 million. There is a further €2.6 million owed by Ryanair, which it disputes, and I understand that case is before the High Court. Deputy Mitchell smiled when I said I made the changes to ensure we do not end up in that situation.

In terms of the beneficiaries, they will be largely our own people who will be affected if a catastrophe occurs. We are doing this for families etc., mainly Irish families if it involved our own airlines.

I accept this is not a satisfactory situation. All governments would probably take that view. We will seek to ensure that a mutual scheme is set up, that will take governments out of the picture at a European level, to cover all European airlines. That is being examined by the European Commission and the sooner we can move to that position, the better from everybody's perspective.

In reply to Deputy Mitchell's question about a possible claim for €9 billion, if such a claim was made the Government would have to decide at that point what should be done. The Bill does not provide for such a possibility and it would have to be considered if such a catastrophe occurred. It would be a matter for all Governments as to how we would do that. If we are to protect Irish aviation from a commercial point of view, our passengers and our tourism industry, we must put this measure in place. Deputy Shortall made the point that the possibility of such a catastrophe was theoretical but the European Commission has decided we must provide these covers and extend them to other airports licensed by the Irish Aviation Authority. It is not just about the large airports but all airports and all airlines. The Commission also decided corporate and private aeroplanes must have this cover irrespective of the Government stepping in. Such cover was not mandatory previously, although a number of corporate and private airlines took it out. If we were not to do this, we would effectively ground all private and corporate airlines doing business in this country, which would create an untenable situation from an Irish perspective.

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