Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Government has not taken a formal position on the matter of vouchers or refunds. There may be something at Department level. I will have to check, but, even so, I doubt that any law could be changed retrospectively. I may be wrong about that but I have never come across anyone changing a consumer protection law retrospectively. It might be changed prospectively but I do not see how it could be changed retrospectively. I will get a briefing on that issue but there is no Government decision on it.

Objectively, the liberalisation of air travel in the world has been an extraordinary success. The connectivity Ryanair provided was not possible when airlines were owned by national governments. Ryanair totally disrupted air travel, democratised it and made it possible for ordinary people to afford to fly to all parts of Europe. Liberalisation has been a huge success in terms of aviation and socialists have been proved wrong in that regard. Aer Lingus has been a real success too, and has never had more staff or flights than it has now. What has happened to the airline industry-----

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