Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join the Minister in thanking the House for allowing us to address the matter of international travel and aviation.

I take this opportunity to acknowledge the announcement by Aer Lingus last week regarding its Shannon base. It is very regrettable that Aer Lingus has decided to close the Aer Lingus cabin crew base at Shannon Airport and to temporarily close its base at Cork Airport as well as embarking on a review of ground handling arrangements at those airports. However, it is also noted that many airlines across Europe are also implementing significant cost saving measures in light of the circumstances currently facing the industry. Reported job cuts in other European Airlines, for example KLM, Lufthansa and IAG is indicative of industry-wide restructuring across Europe. The unprecedented challenges being faced by Aer Lingus and their staff during this difficult time is also understood within this context and the cumulative impact of Covid-19 over the past 15 months. The Minister and I met with the CEO of Aer Lingus to discuss details of the announcement made by the company last week. We reiterated the Government's commitment to supporting the industry and acknowledged the importance of providing clarity on the extent and duration of the employment supports beyond the end of June. We reassured the airline that there would be no cliff edge in the horizontal State supports that have been available from the start of the pandemic.

The meeting with the CEO last week also focused on the future operations of the company in Ireland. The CEO outlined the company's hopes for a resumption of travel from Cork and Shannon when the situation allows. I welcomed the confirmation by the CEO of Aer Lingus that there is no strategic intent to reduce connectivity at either Cork or Shannon while acknowledging that the restoration of services would depend on market circumstances.

We also met with the CEOs of Shannon Group and Cork Airport last week to discuss the situation there. It was reiterated at these meetings, the support for the airports and their important role in regional development. This includes plans to explore the potential of the Shannon Estuary in terms of regional economic development across transport and logistics, manufacturing, renewable energy and tourism, and develop a strategy to achieve this potential, with support from the Exchequer, as set out under the programme for Government commitments. For its part, Cork Airport has taken the decision to undertake an extensive runway project in the region of €35 million-€40 million. This investment falls within the public spending code. This includes the development of a new electrical substation. Taking a range of factors into consideration, including consultation with stakeholders, Cork Airport decided that the optimal approach for completing this project would be to close the airport for ten weeks, significantly shortening the disruptive effect of project delivery from a timescale of nine months if carried out at night-time hours only.

Similar engagements took place last week with trade unions and employer representative groups, in my capacity as chair of the aviation sub-group of the Labour Employer Economic Forum. This sub-group has been investigating the option of a specially extended wage subsidy scheme for the aviation sector, and this work will continue.

I assure the House that the Government is committed to supporting the aviation sector. We recognise the importance of providing clarity on the extent and duration of supports beyond the end of June. Throughout this pandemic, Government has provided a significant level of general supports to the economy, with at least €300 million provided to the aviation sector alone through wage supports, business grants, tax and rates alleviations, and low interest loans. The bulk of this support is in the form of wage subsidies, which were designed to maintain the link between employers and their workers. In addition to these broad supports, the Government secured almost €80 million in Exchequer funds to help passenger airports navigate this crisis in 2021. This is almost four times the usual State provision to airports and includes, for the first time, significant assistance to Cork and Shannon airports.

More than €32 million is being made available to these airports to help meet costs in the areas of safety and security and will contribute to the delivery of essential projects, such as the runway overlay project at Cork Airport. These airports will also benefit from a €20 million damages scheme that was approved by the EU in February, helping to compensate State airports for a portion of financial losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

This funding, which I expect to issue in the coming weeks, will give airports the flexibility to provide route incentives and airport charge rebates to stimulate recovery of lost connectivity this year. Aligned to this support is a five-year commitment to fund our smallest airports under a regional airports programme published in February of this year.

This year, with a budget of over €21 million, Donegal, Kerry and Knock will receive grant aid in the areas of safety, security and sustainability. This amount will also cover the costs associated with air service public service obligations, PSOs, between the capital and our most peripheral airports in Donegal and Kerry. In addition to this €21 million, a further €6 million was secured under an EU state aid scheme to help small airports address liquidity issues caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. As evidenced by these interventions, the Government understands that aviation is a critical lifeline to the regions and will consider what further supports may be needed to help all of our regional airports, including Cork and Shannon, as part of the upcoming Estimates process.

I am also alive to the hardship being experienced by those who depend on the aviation industry for their livelihoods, if not through job losses then through lower pay and income uncertainty. I can assure workers and all of those involved in the aviation industry that the Government will continue to support the industry and review the supports that may be required in the coming months. While we are not yet able to permit the restoration of international travel, work is under way to ensure that we are prepared. Until then, the Government will continue to provide supports to the aviation sector, as it does to all sectors of the economy.

In order to protect our population from the worst effects of the virus and to enable our healthcare system to continue to function and provide essential front-line services, it has been necessary for the Government to take unprecedented action on public health measures. I also refer to the remarks last week from the Chief Medical Officer, CMO, and concerns around the number of cases of the new Indian variant, suggesting that we must continue to be vigilant and maintain public health measures.

As we are now seeing, international travel is a route for the potential seeding of new Covid-19 cases and variants of concern while we persevere in managing community transmission. Mandatory hotel quarantine and PCR testing for international travel are among a suite of public health measures designed to mitigate this risk. Unfortunately, the impact is to the detriment of aviation and related economic sectors.

As a society, we have been rewarded for our efforts over the past few months in that we are now in a position to reopen our economy with some degree of caution. However, it is apparent, and this has been acknowledged in discussions with those employed in the aviation sector and their representative bodies, that the aviation sector will be one of the last sectors of the economy to take those initial steps of reopening.

The Minister and I have, over the past 15 months, engaged with aviation industry representatives and the National Civil Aviation Development Forum. Last month, this group developed an aviation restart plan it believes will best provide for the restart and recovery of the aviation sector in Ireland. It includes the determination of the conditions, vaccination levels and epidemiological thresholds that allow for the de-escalation of public health measures relating to international travel. This will include a stepping down of mandatory quarantine, testing requirements and the advice against non-essential travel. It will also include clear communication of the Government's strategy for the lifting of these restrictions towards a targeted reopening at the appropriate time, a clear commitment to the implementation of the EU digital green certificate for vaccinated, tested and recovered persons as a means to free movement of EU citizens, travel within the common travel area, CTA, with the UK and between Ireland and certain third countries, in particular the United States, and the consideration of a pilot for antigen testing to replace PCR tests for international travel.

I welcomed the recent aviation restart plan produced by the aviation industry participants in the National Civil Aviation Development Forum last month. I want to acknowledge the collaborative and constructive approach of the aviation industry representatives in working through the development of the proposals in the report. The report raises a number of issues for consideration in the context of the development of the Government's roadmap for reopening international travel. Proposals regarding the introduction of EU vaccine certificates will form a central plank of the Government's plan for recovery of the sector. I have also impressed on the industry the need to get visit visibility of how key stakeholders will ramp up operations incrementally as restrictions ease, while ensuring agreed public health and safety measures remain in effect.

While acknowledging the primacy of the protection of public health, there is clearly an increasing need for a strategy for international travel that can serve as a basis to protect existing jobs, insofar as is possible, and to plan for the re-commencement of operations as soon as is practicably possible. I again thank the House for the opportunity to address it and look forward to hearing the views of Deputies on this important matter.

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