Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

The Minister made reference to intermittent problems. Will he confirm that, as Deputy Broughan stated, over the past five weeks five different radar malfunctions occurred? If this is the case, and as I understand it three of them occurred before yesterday, why did they not sound the alarm bells? What information was he given on the three radar malfunctions which took place prior to yesterday?

In the context of the problem being with software, will the Minister tell the House whether the software operating the radar system has been corrupted? Has a third party accessed the software through the world wide web? If the Minister does not understand how software which operated reasonably well for five years stopped operating, has he asked the question of the Irish Aviation Authority? Did it occur to the Minister to ask this question prior to yesterday's serious malfunctions?

Will the Minister confirm that this software system cost €90 million to install? Will he advise the House what costings he has been given for an appropriate software back-up system should this system fail? Does the Minister agree that in light of it failing to ensure passenger safety there is an urgent need to have a secondary system which can be utilised should similar circumstances arise again?

What is the position with regard to passenger safety and what was the position yesterday in circumstances in which the software failed when flights were in the air and coming into Dublin Airport? Did it pose a risk to passenger safety? How were the substantial number of flights which enter Irish airspace and carry on to other countries affected yesterday and how are they affected today by the events which occurred? Is the safety of those aircraft in any way compromised? Does the Minister agree that, as the Irish Aviation Authority administers the system, and it is dealing with this after three malfunctions in the past five weeks in conjunction with the firm that installed the software, that will not necessarily give us appropriate answers? Does he further agree an independent investigation into these events should be conducted, in particular to investigate what went wrong with the software, whether the software has been corrupted and what are the security systems that protect the software from intervention by outside third parties, and an independent report produced on what is required and the likely costings of an appropriate back-up system?

Does he concur it is not acceptable that more than 20,000 passengers found their flights cancelled yesterday and congestion is increasing in Dublin Airport today? On the basis that the system is currently operating at between 65% and 70% of full capacity, will he indicate precisely when the system will be restored to 100% capacity? When it is restored, how confident is the Minister that an incident such as this will not recur? What has been done to secure the system and to ensure nothing is corrupting it that will reinstate itself and recreate this problem?

Does the Minister agree the events of the past two days are doing profound damage to the image of this country in the context of its tourism industry and other businesses? Business people looking on at what has happened in the airport will see it as unreliable as a passenger arrival or departure location. What guarantee can the Minister give to the House that the matter was dealt with properly by the aviation authority prior to yesterday's events and that it is being dealt with properly today to ensure no repetition?

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