Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The ongoing crisis in aviation has had a devastating impact in the mid-west. When is the Minister of State's Department going to wake up to this crisis? How many job losses and warnings will be needed before action is taken? Shannon Airport is on its knees and we see no action being taken by the Minister responsible for aviation. To be clear, commissioning yet another report is not acting. It is pushing the solution further down the runway. Sinn Féin's position has been absolutely clear. We called for robust checks and controls at our ports and airports, including at the pre-departure stage, as well as post-arrival testing, 100% follow-up and a support package for workers in the industry to protect jobs and strategic connectivity. In May, Sinn Féin called for temporary temperature screening at airports. We again called for this in June and for a traffic light system.

The recommendations of the aviation task force report have not been implemented and neither have those contained within the Oireachtas report. Independent reviews were undertaken by the Limerick Chamber of Commerce and others, and yet nothing has been done. A threat now hangs over 500 jobs at the Lufthansa Technik operation at Shannon, 81 cabin crew have already lost their jobs with Aer Lingus and no action has been forthcoming from the Minister. The time for more reports is over. It is time now for action. We are potentially witnessing the collapse of an international airport, huge damage is being done to the mid-west economy and the Minister with responsibility seems devoid of any idea of how to respond.

See this speech in context