Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent) | Oireachtas source

With regard to the question on bicycles, I thank the Deputy for her contribution. Although it is not up to me, I will convey her wishes to the Minister for Finance.

On the second question, there is a certain misunderstanding about that scheme. It was introduced for two reasons. We must remember there is a guarantee of the money to the people who have actually had the cancellation. The credit notes are only offered by the travel agent and they do not have to be accepted by the customer. A customer can say, "No, I am going to go after the money", and if they seek to get the money, they will get it. On top of that, if the travel agent goes bust, and five have gone under recently, those credit notes are guaranteed by the Government. Therefore, the consumer will not lose that money in the long run, whatever happens.

This is not something that is done easily because the consumer is being asked to make a sacrifice. The reason it is being done is because the travel agents are in such an appalling cash flow situation, given the flights are flying but the travel agents are not getting a rebate. This means they would go under if they were to hand over the money to all those people who had cancelled. The idea is to make sure the travel agencies do not get into a really serious situation where a wave of travel agents go bust, and this seeks to ensure they can actually offer something to the consumer, who will be able to redeem it in the long run.

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