Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Ireland is not an outlier, nor should it be. I believe the digital green certificate should be introduced in July. We made a commitment that the recovery proposal for aviation would be published in May and I am pleased to note that will happen on Friday. I am, however, dismayed at certain aspects of the Minister's contribution this afternoon on the basis that it now looks like we will introduce the digital green certificate in the middle of August. While I understand there may be moves with regard to the common travel area with the UK, which is welcome, some of our biggest markets are in the European Union and the United States, which is why I believe we should be moving faster to implement this.

As I said, we are not an outlier in the European Union. Fine Gael is a member of an organisation that has been at the heart of Europe for many years. With regard to the implementation of the digital green certificate, it seems that, for some strange reason, we will be waiting until August. That is not acceptable.

More than 100,000 jobs are supported by Dublin Airport in my constituency and perhaps a couple of constituencies around it. That is not an exaggeration. The airport contributed €18 billion to our economy in 2018, which is approximately 6% of GDP.

Without providing certainty in the sector as quickly as possible, many more jobs will be at risk, not just those jobs that were lost in Shannon Airport last week. There is the potential for more job losses and those will be in Cork and Dublin in the very near future unless we give certainty to the sector. It requires time to plan the recovery.

I commend Recover Irish Aviation for putting forward such a well put together plan at a very early stage. I also commend the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, on their contributions to the process. I know they have to work on it tirelessly for weeks.

It is time we recognised that the United States and the UK are streets ahead of us in returning to aviation in terms of their vaccination programmes. Excluding them is the wrong thing to do and the wrong message to send. Some of the Deputies opposite have repeatedly referred to the importance of foreign direct investment, FDI, and the United States air routes. We must also recognise, however, that if we do not send a clear message as quickly as possible, it will have a long-lasting impact.

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